Skip to main content

Thomas E. Woods interview - Meltdown

Thomas E. Woods Jr., author of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors and economic historians.

Today we'll hear Tom's recent interview on the Financial Sense Newshour, in which he talks with host Jim Puplava about the true nature of our current economic crisis.

Tom Woods sees the crisis very differently from the media-driven consensus view of a panic fueled by "free market failures". Responding to calls for more government intervention to mend these supposed failures, Woods points out that the financial crisis is actually an outgrowth of past government interventions into the markets and economy.

Meltdown places particular emphasis on the artificially low interest rates and easy money policies created by the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan, and continued under current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. Now as the crisis continues, the same people responsible for fostering the conditions that created this economic mess are somehow placed in charge of fixing the situation.

Hear Tom Woods and Jim Puplava discuss why the media slept through the buildup (and collapse) of this economic boom-bust cycle, and how people can better understand the root causes of our current economic troubles, as detailed in Meltdown.

Related articles and posts:

1. Tom Woods: Meltdown (interview) - Lew Rockwell Show.

2. Government intervention fuels the crisis - Finance Trends.

3. Thomas E. Woods: the 33 Questions - Mises via Finance Trends.

Popular posts from this blog

Nasdaq credit rating junked.

S&P cut Nasdaq's credit rating to junk status citing debt burdens and its questionable strategy to buy a controlling interest in the London Stock Exchange. Financial Times reported that the exchange's counterparty credit & bank loan rating were lowered fromm BBB- (lowest investment grade rating) to BB+. The change will increase Nasdaq's borrowing costs should it wish to pursue aquisition targets. For an earlier look at the exchange consolidation trend that brought about Nasdaq's push for a stake in the LSE, please see "Exchange fever" .

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean ...

Jesse Livermore: How to Trade in Stocks (1940 Ed. E-book)

If you've been around markets for any length of time, you've probably heard of 20th century supertrader, Jesse Livermore . Today we're highlighting his rare 1940 work, How to Trade in Stocks (ebook, pdf). But first, a brief overview of Livermore's life and trading career (bio from Jesse Livermore's Wikipedia entry). "During his lifetime, Livermore gained and lost several multi-million dollar fortunes. Most notably, he was worth $3 million and $100 million after the 1907 and 1929 market crashes, respectively. He subsequently lost both fortunes. Apart from his success as a securities speculator, Livermore left traders a working philosophy for trading securities that emphasizes increasing the size of one's position as it goes in the right direction and cutting losses quickly. Ironically, Livermore sometimes did not follow his rules strictly. He claimed that lack of adherence to his own rules was the main reason for his losses after making his 1907 and...