Austrian economics is academically described here, but the basic idea is that central banks are bad at deciding what interest rates should be, and they are the root cause of inflation and many other financial disasters.
Also, fiat currencies tend to lose their value over time, while tangible assets such as gold retain them (they are no one else’s liability):
I imagine that the majority of Piggingtons agree with Mish and other Austrians that artificially low interest rates (and bad fiscal policy that allows too much deduction of housing financing costs) has resulted in “malinvestment” (i.e. too much money invested in non-productive housing).
I have been following Mish and others for some time, and the Austrian view of the world is certainly not accurate in terms of timing, but who is? But now, as the greatest asset bubble in history deflates, their time has come.
I love the Austrians for their sense of history, their straight talk (i.e. Ron Paul), and ability to see through market manipulations:
Some additional Austrian (or Austrian-compatible) links:
P.S. You can get out of pension and medical obligations by changing the terms or simply reneging on them! Inflation is less messy, but by no means the only way.
P.P.S. Ron Paul’s bills to abolish the Federal Reserve never seem to get very far:
