The financial meltdown in Iceland was supposed to be the definitive argument against free markets, which were said to have caused that country’s terrible ordeal. Why, only a laissez-faire ideologue could cling to a belief in markets after this experience, etc. Now come Philipp Bagus and David Howden, two very young (and very bright — I think they’re both geniuses) Austrian economists, with the real story — which, it turns out, has plenty to do with central banking, moral hazard, and Austrian business cycle theory. Check out, in pdf, Deep Freeze: Iceland’s Economic Collapse.

The Best of Tom Woods