My weekly articles for the Goldbroker.com website from November 2012 to November 2014, from Obama’s re-election to the mid-term elections.
The goal of these economics detox chronicles is to propose another view and, first of all, counter the main discourse which permanently paints a rosy picture of the situation. No, the global economy has not recovered from the crisis that started in 2008; no, there is no recovery; no, central banks’ interventions do not solve anything and they are, in fact, preparing the next crisis; no, the euro is not a solid currency; no, the bull market in stocks is not due to any improvement in the real economy. It is also important to underscore the risks for the savers, because they won’t escape the next crisis unscathed. But these chronicles also aim to propose another read on the economy, a point of view that is still being neglected today although it’s starting to recover some of its glow recently: the Austrian school of economics, of which the most prominent figures are Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek or Murray Rothbard. These advocates of the gold standard had it right because gold, more than ever, has a role to play in our monetary system and monetary expansion, along with interest rates manipulation by central banks, is bound to provoke very serious deficiencies, as has always been the case. Defending economic freedom against crony capitalism and questioning the all-meddling State, having faith in the markets rather than “regulations”, that is their message and the message of these chronicles. Other approaches similarly shunned by academia include extreme risk analysis by Benoît Mandelbrot and Nassim Taleb. Those shunned schools of thought have the answers needed to exit this current crisis, the worst one since 1929. We are also in the midst of a crisis in the way we envision the economy, which is now essentially Keynesian and interventionist. This thinking prevails among today’s economists, sadly, but they live in a bubble bound to burst one day.
Writing a weekly chronicle entails a healthy discipline forcing one to go further into details and try to captivate an always hurried reader already overloaded with information. This is an exciting challenge for which I would like to thank Fabrice Drouin Ristori, founder of Goldbroker.com, who has offered me this opportunity. I appreciate his trust and the total freedom I am given.
