Keynesians and other interventionists would have you believe that the boom and bust cycle is a problem built into economic liberalism (i.e., a free market economy where the state just sticks to the job of protecting the rights of people) and which government policy can correct. Economists of the Austrian School argue, however, that the forces of competition keep the economy on a path of stable growth and that it is through government intervention that we get the boom and bust cycle.

Professor Harry Veryser writes here about his new book It Didn’t Have to Be This Way, where he makes the case for Austrian theory and its laissez-faire prescriptions.