Introduction to Economics: Part 5

The entrepreneur is the major risk bearer. Business return on capital is long run profits or losses. Real rate of interest is determined by time preferences. Government contracts are cost plus. Medical costs are higher because supply is so restricted by government intervention. Who benefits?[by government action]. Rockefeller families are heavily invested in drug companies. Cartelism. Monopolies. Yet, free market productivity causes prices of goods to drop, e.g. computer products.

How the history of the business cycle starts. War stimulus, famine, were outside the market and not cyclical until around 1750. There then began to be wave-type activities. The Industrial Revolution and fractional reserve banking spread. Were these the causes of cycles? Were sunspots?

Part five of seven from Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard.