[hristov]

"yet never acknowledges that nobody can identify a bubble that has happened without government manipulation of the market"

Well, let me identify some for you. The tulip bubble, which is the classical example of a bubble had absolutely nothing to do with government manipulation. The internet stocks bubble of the late 90s also was largely unrelated to government manipulation. The housing bubbles of some eastern european countries also had nothing to do with the government as those governments did not subsidise housing. Even with the US housing bubble government involvement was rather tangential, the most troubled assets were not in any way subsidized by the government.

" He goes on at length about Keynesian stimulus with no mention of its dismal failures, most notably in Japan."

Japan is not an example of failure of Keynesian economics, because it is not really an example of keneysian economics. There haven't been the large public works project perscribed by keneysian economics in japan. Japan has tried to get out of the recession mostly by secretly subsidizing its banks.

[kingkongrevenge]

> There haven't been the large public works project perscribed by keneysian economics in japan.

At one point Japan was the single largest concrete importer in the world. They were building roads and bridges and train lines like crazy. It temporarily juiced the markets but did nothing to sustainably restart the economy.

Japan didn't so much subsidize the zombie banks as simply allow them to float along insolvent forever. They never forced bankruptcy or write-downs.

> The internet stocks bubble of the late 90s also was largely unrelated to government manipulation.

The NASDAQ went parabolic in 1999 just after Greenspan cut interest rates as a precautionary measure to juice the economy in preparation for Y2K.

Tulips are addressed elsewhere. I don't know anything about Eastern European housing, but I'll bet its riddled with subsidies and tax advantages just like it is here.