Economic Studies

[TJ]

Although we are certainly interested in knowing where the economy is going and why it does what it does, we are ignorant. Economic history and clever economists gives us a clue. Economists that have the capability and skill to properly evaluate and clearly describe these events should be our guide. Murray Rothbard was one of the best.

One valuable evalustion of an economic bust, The Panic of 1819, is available in pdf file at http://www.mises.org/rothbard/panic1819.pdf

This panic occured before government began major manipulation of the nation's economy.

Here is the The Panic of 1819 book review:

The Panic of 1819 was America's first great economic crisis. And this is Rothbard's masterful account, the first full scholarly book on the topic and still the most definitive.

The American Economic Review was wild for this book when it appeared: "Rothbard's work represents the only published, book-length, academic treatise on the remedies that were proposed, debated, and enacted in attempts to cope with the crisis of 1819," the reviewer wrote. "As such, the book should certainly find a place on the shelf of the study of U.S. business cycles and of the economic historian who is interested in the early economic development of the United States."

And specialists have treasured the book for years. It is incredible to realized that some American historians think of MN Rothbard as the author of this book and nothing else!

Rothbard tells the story about a disaster that could not be attributed to some specific government blunder or disaster. It seemed to originate from within the economic system itself. Its cause was not obvious to observers at the time. Confronted with something new, the Panic engendered much discussion and debate about possible causes and remedies. As Rothbard observes, the panic provides "an instructive picture of a people coming to grips with the problems of a business depression, problems which, in modified forms, were to plague Americans until the present day."

The Panic of 1819 grew largely out of the changes wrought by the War of 1812, and by the postwar boom that followed. The war also brought a rash of paper money, as the government borrowed heavily to finance the war. The government depended on note-issuing banks spread throughout the country. All of this put tremendous strains on the banks

[leterry60614]

What lessons would apply to Issan in 2007?

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Probably not too many lessons can be gleaned from this since Issan in 2007 is not the same as 1819 America. The governments are different, the U.S. had slavery, there was more industry in America at the time, there are more rice farmers in Issan, there does not seem to have been a spurt in the growth of banks in Issan, America had tried and failed to detach British North America (Canada) from the British Empire, whereas part of the old empires of Bangkok and Ayutthaya, Laos (Vien Chan, Luang Prabang and Champassak), seems to be reintegrating itself into the Thai economy, and so on. This is not to say that one cannot make some comparisions, but it is always difficult to try and fit Southeast Asian countries into political and economic models dreamt up by American/European political scientists and economists.