Il ciclo economico

In a business cycle, the government plays much the same role
as that counterfeiter. A business cycle begins when the currency is
inflated because money substitutes (paper "money," coins made of
low-value metal, such as the "sandwich" coins, etc.) are pumped
into the economy. These money substitutes are, in reality, substitutes
for nothing, since they are not backed by real monetary value (such
as gold and silver); they are, therefore, worthless or very nearly so.

It is government which issues currency and government which inflates
the supply of money substitutes. The government-inflated
currency stimulates an artificial boom which misdirects the market's
signal system. Entrepreneurs, thinking they are more prosperous
than they really are, make malinvestments and overinvestments. The
boom breaks when the nature and extent of the malinvestment is
discovered. The ensuing depression is actually the market's only
means of recovering from the inflation-caused malinvestment. Thus,
the business cycle, which has so often been blamed on laissez-faire
capitalism, is actually the cold steel of the knife of government intervention in the market's vitals—free trade

Morris and Linda Tannehill, "The Market for Liberty" pag 26/27