Peter's Blog

Former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke is celebrated for the unprecedented interventions that supposedly saved the economy from depression after the 2008 financial meltdown, expanding the Fed’s role well beyond its traditional purchase of short-term treasury bills into buying private stocks, mortgage securities, and long-term government debt. Rather than allowing the malinvestments of the housing boom […]

Monetary inflation and technological revolution have combined to produce dangerous asset bubbles throughout history, from the precious-metal inflows and printing press of the Northern Renaissance to today’s digital-era boom in equities and speculative assets. The technology-driven productivity gains mask rising prices in goods markets, giving central banks cover to keep interest rates artificially low, fuel […]

The role of the market as a creator and processor of information is central to Austrian economics. Prices should reflect the collective evaluation of everyone in the market as they utilize their own constrained resources. While the Austrian theory holds the market to be an important creator of information, it does provides a compelling answer […]

Money Supply is a very important indicator. It helps show how tight or loose current monetary conditions are regardless of what the Fed is doing with interest rates. Even if the Fed is tight, if Money Supply is increasing, it has an inflationary effect. One key metric shown below is the “Wenzel” 13-week annualized money […]

With Washington decrying the so-called “Affordability Crisis,” it’s worth remembering that rhetoric around affordability– or, in Spain’s case, housing– isn’t benevolent or even neutral. In both countries, the problem isn’t lack of credit, corporate greed, or giant corporations buying homes. It’s the continual debasement of money and relentless intervention in housing markets. The following article […]

Last month, we reported on a Bank of America survey that indicated the mainstream has started to acknowledge that the stock market is a big, fat, ugly bubble. The latest fund-manager survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch found that a record 48% of investors say the US stock market is overvalued. Meanwhile, 16% of […]