Whether it is the Empire State Building with the Great Depression, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa building with the 2008 Great Recession, or the Shanghai Tower and this summer’s stock market meltdown in China, the construction of the tallest skyscraper uncannily coincides with major financial and economic downturns.
WindRock interviews Dr. Mark Thornton, Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute, about this phenomenon known as the Skyscraper Index. Dr. Thornton discusses: why the Skyscraper Index has coincided with financial crises and economic recessions; what the underlying causality is between the construction of skyscrapers and financial downturns; when the Skyscraper Index has been wrong, and why; and what the Skyscraper Index tells us today in light of Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower which, upon completion, will be the tallest skyscraper in the world. November 2015.
WindRock interviews Dr. Mark Thornton, Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute, about this phenomenon known as the Skyscraper Index. Dr. Thornton discusses: why the Skyscraper Index has coincided with financial crises and economic recessions; what the underlying causality is between the construction of skyscrapers and financial downturns; when the Skyscraper Index has been wrong, and why; and what the Skyscraper Index tells us today in light of Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower which, upon completion, will be the tallest skyscraper in the world. November 2015.
