Overconsumption means a borrowing and spending boom by consumers that depletes savings and reduces capital investment. Mises was aware that a credit excess could spill over into stock and bond speculation. But even he would be surprised at today's unprecedented level of credit-induced speculation. He would be depressed by the astonishing levels of public and private debt, government borrowing, central bank market interventions, trade deficits, non-bank credit growth, money velocity, illiquidity, overconsumption and foreign indebtedness. The magnitude of these excesses seemingly without penalties would appear to be rewriting the laws of economics as expressed by Mises.
Trade deficits fail to harm the dollar.
The stock market outperforms the economy. Capital gets used up by government and consumers at the expense of investment. Yet business rolls along. Savings are depleted but interest rates stay low. The boom seems unending, the bust postponed indefinitely.