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Austrian theory of business cycle

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Dogstar posted on Tue, Jan 11 2011 10:36 PM

According to this theory, savings-induced growth is sustainable while credit-induced growth is not sustainable.  Intuitively it makes sense that you'd eventually have to make up for overspending in the present by underspending in the future.  If I want to buy something worth $10,000, I can either borrow that money & buy it now or save my income & buy it later.  Either way I'm spending $10,000 so it doesn't seem like borrowed money really contributes to economic growth.  It seems to me that buying now & paying later just steals demand from the future. 

Part of me suspects that I may have oversimplified things so before I accept the Austrian theory as the irrefutable truth can someone explain to me why they believe credit-induced growth is unsustainable?

If I'm going to build an entire belief system around this a priori reasoning I need to make sure it's bulletproof to criticism.

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Lyle replied on Tue, Jan 11 2011 10:45 PM

Sounds good.  What is future consumption but savings and what is credit based on but savings!

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