Hacker News Reader

Thus Apple hoards cash because it believes the bubble will burst? Is that the Austrian explanation for Apple's behavior?

(Still an honest question. I've never understood this about the Austrian school.)

View on HN

Im no expert on Austrian school, but what little I read is that they have an organic view of economics, and that anything that deviates the natural flow will be corrected eventually. If the money is too cheap, it will eventually become really expensive to correct itself, and Apple might be preparing for that. Or it might be causing it.

To be fair, Austrian school of economics is more occultism than anything else in the field, while Chicago School Economics (Milton Friedman&co) have more accepted models and economic ideas. The 'neoliberal' model as far as I understand can't really explain corporate cash hoarding. The situation today is very unique: historically cheapness of money could easily provoke inflation, which would promptly push any cash hoarder to spend.

If the U.S. had a small spike in inflation the whole thing could change quickly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com