The current crisis has triggered significant debate concerning economic theory and policy. Largely absent from this debate is an informed discussion of the methods used by economists in analysing the economy and formulating their proposals. But method matters. Here I argue that current academic...

The 1920s often called the “Golden 20s” because the equity markets were booming but there were a series of structural issues. Only a few years after the 1st World War the global economy was still suffering from the consequences of the brutal war. The market crash of 1929 came unexpected and...

Bank distress was a defining feature of the Great Depression in the United States. Most banks, however, weathered the storm and remained in operation throughout the contraction. We show that surviving banks cut lending when depositors withdrew funds en masse during panics. This panic-induced...

Ludwig von Mises was the acknowledged leader of the Austrian School of economic thought, a prodigious originator in economic theory, and a prolific author. Mises's writings and lectures encompassed economic theory, history, epistemology, government, and political philosophy. His contributions to...

We compare the banking crises in 2008-09 and in the Great Depression, and analyse differences in the policy response to the two crises in light of the prevailing international monetary systems. The scale of the 2008-09 banking crisis, as measured by falls in international short-term indebtedness...

This paper creates a simple model to describe the relationships between, banks, mortgage agencies, mortgage arrangers, and aspiring home owners. Using this model, the author illustrates how slight changes in real estate appreciation assumptions would reverberate through the collateralized debt...

It is still insufficiently realised, even now, that the US and therefore the rest of the world may be on the brink of a severe and intractable recession. As recently as September 2000, it was commonly held that the US business cycle had been abolished for ever, while the “consensus” forecast...

Questo numero speciale della Rivista trimestrale PSL comprende alcuni articoli apparsi nel corso degli anni nella prima serie della nostra rivista (allora intitolato BNL Quarterly Review: vedi Roncaglia 2008). Gli articoli pubblicati di seguito sono stati selezionati tra quelli che possono...

This special issue of the PSL Quarterly Review includes some articles which appeared over the years in the first series of our journal (then entitled BNL Quarterly Review: see Roncaglia 2008). The articles published below have been selected among those that can help us to best understand the...

During the 2007-10 financial crisis, central banks accumulated a vast amount of experience in acting as lenders of last resort. This paper reviews the various ways that central banks provided emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) during the crisis, and discusses issues for the design of ELA...