Tom Woods’ new book Meltdown is currently #4 on the Amazon Nonfiction Bestseller list and will enter the NY Times Bestseller list this weekend at #15. Tom provides a readable account of Hayekian macro and uses that framework to explain the current economic boom and bust.

I’ve gone back and looked, and I found I was blogging about the Fed created artificial boom in 2004 and 2005, noting the artificially low Fed interest rate and the massive misdirection of capital into the housing and mortgage industries. I began flagging the Hayekian bust already in 2007, which was clearly evident by that date in Orange County, CA in the mortgage, housing, and construction industries.

All of this was perhaps easier to see here in the OC, the birthplace of the subprime industry, ground zero of the housing bubble and the foreclosure bust, and the home of the OC Register which did an excellent job covered it all. And the boom and bust didn’t just happen in the paper, it happened on my street, it happened to friends and co-workers, and it happened to family members, sucked up and spit out by the mortgage industry, the real estate industry, the financial industry, and housing bubble itself. All of it brought to you by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, and some very bad regulatory regimes pushed by the Congress and the President.

If you’re looking for a book explaining what just happened, let me recommend Tom Woods’ Meltdown.

UPDATE:

Two more homes just went into foreclosure on my very short cul de sac.