First, I have no idea how you are defining “boom and bust cycles.” If you mean there were sectoral depressions before the modern banking system came into being, you are correct, but that is not a boom and bust cycle.

Yes, I have heard the public relations for stimulus programs already — they smooth out the cycle, blah blah blah. What they in fact do is interfere with the adjustment of prices to post-boom conditions and complicate the process of entrepreneurial calculation, which is essential to a sound recovery.

The fact that Austrian economics has been derided proves nothing. It threatens lots of livelihoods, so I’d expect parasites to argue against it. As for Krugman, his schoolboy caricature of Austrian business cycle theory has been smashed a dozen times. Friedman is a separate case, but since when is Friedman infallible? The monetarist and Keynesian criticism of the Austrians on money is actually not all that different.

As for “…the more I read,” I am certain you have done no serious reading in the Austrian tradition.

Thank you, http://www.mises.org, my first step in a life-long journey to try to learn what I don’t know.