As promised, in this episode of Cantillon Effects, I have considered in much more detail whether there is such a thing as a ‘Consumer’ in isolation? I ask if a person’s role as producer is not more important. I look at the part played by interest rates, capital, and entrepreneurs, as well as by the state. I argue that worship of that False God – the ‘Consumer’ – not only slows economic progress in general and encourages heavy-handed and often harmful policies of intervention but also that it leads directly to the wastefulness of Boom and Bust. [To listen instead to Part I and Part II of my podcast on this, please go to CantillonCH at SoundCloud, or search Apple Podcasts here and here and Spotify for ‘Cantillon Effects’] Continue reading
Monthly Archives: April 2019
Duck Hunting
I’ve entitled this episode of Cantillon Effects, ‘Duck Hunting’, not because I have any sudden urge to blast waterfowl out of the sky, but because a number of economic canards clearly need shooting down before they can find a safe place to roost in the general consciousness and there begin to breed even more confusion than already exists. [To listen instead to my podcast on this, please go to CantillonCH at SoundCloud, or search Apple Podcasts and Spotify for ‘Cantillon Effects’] Continue reading
The Man Who Would Be King
With his latest sophomoric outpourings, Ray Dalio confirms our impression that here we have a man who is undoubtedly a first-class money-maker but who has recently quit that lucrative last in order to display his second-rate intellect by peddling distinctly third-hand ideas. [To listen instead to my podcast on this, please go to CantillonCH at SoundCloud, or search Apple Podcasts and Spotify for ‘Cantillon Effects’] Continue reading
Behind the Curve
The phrase on everyone’s lips at the moment is ‘Yield Curve’ – largely for its supposedly unerring ability to predict a recession if not, as its most extreme devotees seem to imply, actually to cause one. But is that a valid interpretation of what is afoot in financial markets and does that jibe with how the real economy is developing? To listen instead to my podcast on this issue, please go to CantillonCH at SoundCloud, or search Apple Podcasts and Spotify for ‘Cantillon Effects’. For an expanded PDF transcript of the yield curve discussion, complete with explanatory charts, please see 19-04-06 M4 No21
M4 Compendium (updated)
As a way of providing easy access to most of the regular work we have published over the past two years – and hence to getting a feel for what we do and how we do it – please see here for a collection in PDF form, offered in reverse chronological order. Continue reading