Episode Details
Back to EpisodesBlack Swans, Sequestered Capital, and the Next Bust
Description
On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton argues that “black swans” aren’t root causes but announcement effects of imbalances created by the Fed’s cheap-credit booms. He highlights Ball State economist James McLure’s idea of sequestered capital—R&D, financial innovations, and opaque private assets shielded from public information—which proliferate under artificially low rates. From the Dutch Tulip Bubble and 1929 investment trusts to today’s candidates—hedge-fund private deals, AI data centers, commercial real estate, and crypto—the pattern is the same: policy-driven credit expansion seeds the very “unknowns” that later trigger crises. The fix isn’t more regulation; it’s removing the fuel line of easy money.
See also "Sequestered Capital: An Overlooked Lacuna in the Capital Structure” by James McClure: https://mises.org/MI_137_A
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