Politics, Money and Banking. Everything You Need to Know in 30 Minutes
May 2011
by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
This is a video recording of a speech given at the Property and Freedom Society
Sixth Annual Meeting
Bodrum, Turkey, 26-30 May 2011.
Theory of Money and Credit
1912
by Ludwig von Mises
"In 1912, when Mises, at age thirty-one, wrote this landmark book, no monetary theory
could be described as both securely founded on economic reality and properly incorporated
into an analysis of the entire economic system. The Theory of Money and Credit
opened new vistas. It integrated monetary theory into the main body of economic analysis
for the first time, providing fresh new insights into the nature of money and its role in
the economy."
What Would Ludwig von Mises Do?
October 29, 2010
by Robert Wenzel
"First, Mises, unlike Friedman and current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, understood that the printing
of money distorts the structure of the economy."
The Mystery of Banking
by Murray N. Rothbard
This book explains free-market banking and critiques fractional-reserve banking.
Rothbard's The Mystery of Banking
August 1, 2011
by Gary North
"It is the only money-and-banking textbook I have read that forthrightly
identifies the process of central banking as both immoral and economically
destructive. It identifies fractional-reserve banking as a form of embezzlement."
Banking on Aggression
by Mary J. Ruwart
"We established the "money monopoly" in the hopes of creating economic stability. By
using aggression as our means, we created boom-and-bust cycles instead."
The Case Against the Fed
by Murray N. Rothbard
"Murray N. Rothbard's manifesto against the federal counterfeiters."
Case Against the Fed and Fractional Reserve Lending
by Mike "Mish" Shedlock
"Fractional Reserve Lending (FRL) is fraudulent. Indeed, FRL in conjunction with
micro-mismanagement of interest rates by the Fed is the root cause of the financial
crisis we are in."
The Case Against the Fed Book Review
May 19, 2010
by Randy Radic
"Rothbard points out that historically, there “have been two kinds of legalized counterfeiting.” The
first is government printed paper money. The second is “fractional-reserve banking.” And Rothbard’s
explanation of fractional-reserve banking is one of the best around. For it is simple and clear,
eschewing technical jargon and convoluted models."
Central Banking as an Engine of Corruption
April 16, 2010
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
"Jefferson concluded that "Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy
bottomed on corruption," with a central bank being the financial centerpiece of the
corrupt regime."
Central Banks as Sources of Financial Instability
Spring 2010
by George Selgin
"The present financial crisis shows how central banks can fuel the financial booms that
make severe busts possible. Unfortunately, theoretical discussions of central banking
badly neglect its role in fostering financial instability, in part because they ignore
its history and political origins."
Ending the Federal Reserve
by Mary Ruwart
"Libertarians object to the Federal Reserve and other central banks because they
ultimately steal the wealth of the citizenry through a mechanism that causes price
inflation. Central banks expand the money supply at will, thereby diluting the purchasing
power of the average person's salary and savings."
End the Fed
September 3, 2009
by Ron Paul
"Chapter 2 of End the Fed by Ron Paul (Grand Central Publishing, 2009),
pp. 12–31. The publisher controls reprint permissions for this chapter, and has given
permission to Mises.org to run this."
End the Fed
by Matt Stoller
"The Fed is now less respected than the IRS. And so Sarah Palin has her opening,
as do the conservative hard money creditor interests. Liberals should stop their
love affair with conservative technocratic myths of monetary independence, and
cease seeing this Federal Reserve as a legitimate actor. At the very least, we
need to begin noticing that these people do in fact run the country, and should
not."
End The FED. Get The Gold.
October 16, 20
by Gary North
"The law would be very simple. "The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is hereby abolished." This wording
leaves nothing to the imagination. Anyone can understand this. There do not have to be any additional
qualifications, exemptions, or anything else. There is no need for an army of lobbyists to recommend
the insertion of all kinds of special-interest language. "
THE FEDERAL RESERVE MUST DIE
August 25, 2009
by James Quinn
"Ron Paul’s scathing assessment of the Federal Reserve’s primary role in creating the
financial crisis and his raking of Chairman Bernanke over the coals is so accurate,
truthful and sane that it should blow your mind. Mr. Bernanke must have felt like his
head was spinning like a top while Ron Paul gave him a tutorial in basic economics.
Mr. Paul’s noble efforts to Audit the Fed (HR 1207) and eventually to rid the country
of its insidious control over our lives will bring the pillars of the Federal Reserve
building crashing down upon Mr. Bernanke in his mahogany paneled, gold plated boardroom
with ornate chandeliers."
Honest Money in Dishonest Hands
July 20, 2012
by George F. Smith
"As long as the Fed is around, we will never have honest money.
The purpose of the Fed is to inflate for the benefit of its friends: the big
banks and government. Honest money is a rare commodity and as such is
an inflationist's nightmare. In light of this situation we should never
question the success of government schooling. Even today, there is
widespread belief that the Fed is the nation's number one inflation
fighter, and few people would know how to disagree, including trained economists."
How To End the Federal Reserve System
March 9, 2011
by Gary North
"The Post Office looked unbeatable for over 250 years. Technology has made it
peripheral. The same will happen to the Federal Reserve System. It looks
unbeatable. But the Internet can beat it. There are ways out of the FED's trap."
The Impossible Task of the Fed
February 1981
by Ernest G. Ross
"Privatized monetary functions do act as a natural check on the power of government. But
the alternative to privatizing the U.S. monetary system, tinkering and fiddling with
the derelict government system we have, means keeping a form of tyranny intact. There
is only one way to prevent the damages to human liberty which a tyranny inflicts—take
away the tyranny. The Fed is such a tyranny. There is no place for it in the future of
a free America."
Life with the Fed: Sunshine and Lollipops?
April 6, 2011
by Tom Woods
"As with the Fed, so with these other things: critics of the status quo are
reflexively condemned as cranks, and alternatives to the status quo are
dismissed as unthinkable. But they are only unthinkable because we have
allowed fashionable opinion to keep us from thinking them. We have been
forced into a box that confines our choices to various forms of statism.
The movement to end the Fed is an astonishing and most welcome first step
toward clawing our way out."
New York Fed: Leave the Building!
April 30, 2012
by Robert Wenzel
"Let's have one good meal here. Let's make it a feast. Then I ask you,
I plead with you, I beg you all, walk out of here with me, never to come back.
It's the moral and ethical thing to do. Nothing good goes on in this place.
Let's lock the doors and leave the building to the spiders, moths,
and four-legged rats."
Origins of the Federal Reserve
by Murray N. Rothbard
This article originally appeared in Quarterly Journal of Austrian
Economics, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Fall 1999), pp. 3–51. It is also reprinted in
A History of Money and Banking in the United States and as a monograph.
Ron Paul Q&A: Audit the Fed, Then End It
September 16, 2009
by Sudeep Reddy
"For three decades, Rep. Ron Paul has waged a lonely battle in Congress to abolish the
Federal Reserve. But he has more foot soldiers across the nation today, particularly
after the financial crisis, who are leading the drive for wider congressional audits of
the central bank."
Why Do We Have a Central Bank?
December 3, 2010
by Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.
"Why do nations have central banks? Countries have developed without
one, and sophisticated financial systems have evolved in their
absence. Some countries with a central bank have suffered for having
one. Zimbabwe comes to mind."
Case Against the Fed and Fractional Reserve Lending
by Mike "Mish" Shedlock
"Fractional Reserve Lending (FRL) is fraudulent. Indeed, FRL in conjunction with
micro-mismanagement of interest rates by the Fed is the root cause of the financial
crisis we are in."
The Death of Banks and the Future of Money
June 20, 2012
by Detlev Schlichter
"Banks are something between dinosaurs and vampires. One thing is now
clear to even the most casual observer: banks are not capitalist
businesses. In their present incarnation they have little to do with
the free market and no place in it."
The Faults of Fractional-Reserve Banking
December 27, 2010
by Thorsten Polleit
"To get the ball rolling, Austrian economists (in particular those in the
Misesian-Rothbardian tradition) uncompromisingly call for replacing fiat
money with free-market money – money that is produced by the free interplay
of the supply of and demand for money."
Fractional Reserve Banking
by Murray N. Rothbard
"The very idea of "deposit insurance" is a swindle; how does one insure an institution
(fractional reserve banking) that is inherently insolvent, and which will fall apart
whenever the public finally understands the swindle?"
Fractional-Reserve Banking, Contracts of Deposit, and the Title-Transfer Theory
of Contract
August 13, 2009
by Stephan Kinsella
"Someone asked me the proper way to view deposit contracts, in the context of a
discussion about fractional-reserve banking (FRB)."
Fractional Reserve Banking Is Indeed Fraudulent
by Laura Davidson
"Posner criticizes Block for not understanding the difference between property rights
and contract rights. Block has responded in an article called "Is Fractional Reserve
Banking Fraudulent?" in which he rightly likens the FRB contract to selling a "square
circle." Let us examine further where Posner's argument fails, and why the alleged FRB
contract does indeed involve a logical contradiction."
The Fractional-Reserve Banking Question
June 14, 2010
by Robert P. Murphy
"In the present article, we have walked through a simple example to illustrate the strange
nature of fractional-reserve banking. In a very real sense, this process creates money out
of thin air. This observation alone doesn't prove its illegitimacy, let alone its
connection with the business cycle, but it should give pause to those who see nothing wrong
with the practice."
Fractional Reserve Banking Revisited
What Are We Really Using for Money? –
Some Very Basic Questions
March 20, 2012
by Carl Watner
"As for me, paper money has no redeeming qualities: if it is issued by a government I
would shun it on general principles; and if it is privately issued it has no intrinsic
value. If it is thought to be representative of fractional reserves, then it is
doubly suspicious. Under a sound, honest, and private monetary system paper money
substitutes might exist. But since precious metals cannot be fractionalized they are
to be preferred as money. Gold and silver are real commodities subject to the laws
of nature, not the rules of government, nor the laws of men."
Fractional Reserves and Economic Instability
July 12, 2012
by John P. Cochran
"Fractional-reserve banking has historically been viewed by some
economists and most monetary cranks as a panacea for the economy -- a
source of easy credit and new purchasing power to quicken trade.
Better economists, however, recognized fractional-reserve banking with
its ability to create credit, Mises's (1971, pp. 268-69) circulation
credit or Rothbard's (1994) deposit banking, as a major source of
financial and economic instability."
Fractional versus 100% Reserve Banking
June 1988
by Morris J. Markovitz
"As the fractional reservers point out, there’s nothing wrong with loan-brokering.
What’s wrong is forcing people to deposit into a loan-brokering scheme by forbidding
the alternative, while simultaneously falsely advertising the loan-broker outfit as
a safe warehouse. That’s what today’s banking system does and both sides would agree
that it’s wrong."
Is Fractional Reserve Banking Fraudulent?
by Walter Block
Prof. Eric Posner comments on the Block-Caplan debate on fractional reserve banking, and
Walter Block answers Posner.
Liberty, Ethics, and 100% Reserve Banking
by Michael S. Rozeff
"I will argue a simple proposition about fractional-reserve banking. Suppose that,
in a free market situation, depositors in a bank agree to make deposits in the bank,
knowing full well that the bank intends to lend out some of these deposits. Depositors
may also know full well that they may lose some of their deposits. An analogous case
is that of making any risky loan in which there is a chance that the loan will not be
paid off in full. My proposition is that, in this free market characterized by willing
and voluntary behavior by both depositor and banker, with all actions being known and
above-board, the actions of the fractional-reserve banker are not inherently criminal."
Should We Let Banks Create Money?
by George Selgin
"Some economists of the Austrian school oppose fractional-reserve banking on the grounds
that it is inherently fraudulent, pro-cyclical and unstable. These critics should focus
their wrath on repressive financial legislation and central-bank mischief, not on a
legitimate practice that encourages savings and investment."
To the Opponents of Fractional Reserve Banking
It's not what you think.
December 2, 2010
by Steven Horwitz
"There’s nothing wrong with fractional reserve banking that getting rid of central
banking and its various interventions can’t cure."
Walter Block versus Bryan Caplan on Fractional Reserve Banking
by Walter Block
"The present debate got started when I read that Caplan had characterized Rothbard’s
position on fractional reserve banking (frb) as "crazy." Further adding insult to
injury, he denotes this position as too easy of a target to hit out against. Now, I
suppose, I think of Milton Friedman roughly in the way that Caplan regards Rothbard.
Yet, I never characterized Friedman’s views as "crazy" nor as a "too easy" target. That
really got in my craw, and led me to write to Caplan."
Banking for Free: Banking in a Free Society
by Bobby Yates Emory
There will be more banking options in a free society.
"Market forces will select the solution that provides the best
combination of safety and efficiency."
Banking Without Regulation
October 1993
by Lawrence H. White
"How well would the banking system work if there were no government regulation? One way
to begin answering this question is to examine the historical record. In the nineteenth
century many countries had relatively unregulated banking systems with few or none of the
restrictions that face American banks today: legal barriers to new entry, deposit
insurance, geographic and activity restrictions, reserve requirements, and protection of
favored banks from failure. Because these systems were so different from today’s, they
throw valuable light on the possible consequences of completely deregulating banking in
the future."
Banking Without the Too-Big-to-Fail Doctrine
November 1992
by Richard M. Salsman
"In conclusion, I want to stress that the “too-big-to-fail” doctrine is part and parcel
of a wider system of central banking that undermines the financial condition of the
banking system. The sooner we phase out this system in favor of free banking and the
rule of law, the better off we will be. In other words, repealing the “too-big-to-fail”
doctrine will be a good start, but it won’t go far enough in curing what really ails
the banks."
A bank that lends you goats
November 7, 2010
NDTV Updates
"Our effort is that every member of the bank has a capital of at least 20 goats so that they become
self-reliant financially."
Book Review: Free Banking
January 3, 2011
by John P. Cochran
"The new preface is an important contribution to the ongoing debate within
Austrian circles over banking freedom versus 100 percent–reserve banking."
Commercial Banking in a Free Society
by Steven Horowitz
"Banks in a free society will be literally nothing special. ... If they
are fraudulent or use force, they need to face the consequences. ... The
result will not only be a more free banking system, but a more efficient,
safe, and productive one."
The Forgotten Private Banker
April 1995
by Richard Sylla
"What is a private banker? Or rather, since the species has more or less disappeared,
what was a private banker? Private bankers, to American banking historians, were
individuals and organizations that engaged in the business of banking without first
obtaining a permit to do so from governmental authorities."
Free Banking and Contract Law
by Ludwig von Mises
"Free banking is the only method available for the prevention of the dangers inherent in
credit expansion. It would, it is true, not hinder a slow credit expansion, kept within
very narrow limits, on the part of cautious banks which provide the public with all
information required about their financial status. But under free banking it would have
been impossible for credit expansion with all its inevitable consequences to have
developed into a regular—one is tempted to say normal—feature of the economic system.
Only free banking would have rendered the market economy secure against crises and
depressions."
Free Banking versus Large-scale Credit Expansion
by Ludwig von Mises
"Government interference with the present state of banking affairs could be justified
if its aim were to liquidate the unsatisfactory conditions by preventing or at least
seriously restricting any further credit expansion. In fact, the chief objective of
present-day government interference is to intensify further credit expansion. This
policy is doomed to failure. Sooner or later it must result in a catastrophe."
A Note on Credit Institutions in a Free Nation
by Roderick Long
Corrects and clarifies Roy Halliday's article
Money, Banking
and the Gambling-Stakes Paradign for Loan Collateral and Labor Contracts.
The revised version of Roy Halliday's article is The
Gambling-Stakes Paradigm for Loans and Labor Contracts.
Toward Free Banking
July 1986
by Donald R. Wells and L.S. Scruggs
"Most economists consider money to be a special good that should be controlled by the
national government. But advocates of free banking consider money a private good which,
as any other good, must meet the market test of acceptability. Let us consider the
advantages of free banking, and see how such a system might be implemented in the
United States."
Why Not Monetary Freedom?
December 2005
by Richard M. Ebeling
"In all of the commentaries that have appeared since President George W. Bush nominated
Dr. Ben S. Bernanke as Alan Greenspan’s successor at the Federal Reserve, there has been
one crucial question that has remained virtually unasked: Why do we need a central bank
and therefore a new chairman for the Fed?"
Why Private Banks and Not Central Banks Should Issue Currency, Especially
in Less Developed Countries
April 19, 2000
by Lawrence H. White and George Selgin
"What would a private currency system look like? As in Scotland and Northern Ireland
today, domestic banks would issue circulating notes denominated in and directly
redeemable for foreign-currency assets (there, Bank of England notes). Each note would
clearly carry the name of the issuing bank whose liability it is. Any bank that tried
to issue too many notes would find them being deposited into other banks, and returning
via the clearing system for redemption in reserve money. "
Break Up the Banks
by Arnold Kling
"Big banks are bad for free markets. Far from being engines of free enterprise, they
are conducive to what might be called "crony capitalism," "corporatism," or, in Jonah
Goldberg's provocative phrase, "liberal fascism." There is a free-market case for
breaking up large financial institutions: that our big banks are the product, not of
economics, but of politics."
The Dynamics of Disintervention
June 2009
by Sanford Ikeda
"People as different as Paul Krugman and Alan Greenspan blame deregulation for the
mess Wall Street got itself into. Supporters of the free market respond, correctly,
that the primary culprits are the incentives and pressures government created in the
housing and finance industries that precipitated the housing bubble. But in the context
of the theory of intervention outlined here, the grain of truth in what the market
critics say is that partial deregulation, not deregulation per se, is to blame. The
problem was not too much but too little deregulation."
Government, Fiscal Responsibility, and Free Banking
February 2005
by Richard Ebeling
"If the belief in and desire for personal and economic liberty gains hold and grows,
monetary and fiscal reform will eventually come by logical necessity."
How to regulate banks
July 27, 2010
by Dr Eamonn Butler
"Regulate with chunky reserve requirements and forget the rest. Have even chunkier requirements
on the bigger institutions which pose the biggest systemic risk. Don't try to legislate the
structure of banks, but make them tell their customers how safe, or otherwise, their money is.
And let's have sound money, so politicians can't get us into the same boom-bust cycles again."
Lessons from the Financial Crisis: A Libertarian Perspective
by Kevin Dowd
"My topic this evening is the current financial crisis. My theme is that the
Classical Liberal perspective can help us both to understand the crisis and to
find a way of out it."
Market Money and Free Banking
October 1999
by Bettina Bien Greaves
"The monetary problem that the advocates of free banking are trying to solve, as
described by modern monetary economists, is very complex. But this complexity is
not a consequence of the economics of money. Rather it is caused by governmental,
not economic, factors—especially the designation of government’s notes as legal
tender for the payment of debts. The complexity of the monetary situation is the
outcome of many regulations and controls."
Privatize Deposit Insurance
July 1989
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
"Only one solution can overcome moral hazards in the banking and thrift
industries: private deposit insurance. The government must dissolve the FDIC and FSLIC
and remove all remaining regulations upon depository institutions. The first step would
permit the competitive forces of the market to arrange actuarially sound insurance that
protects depositors without subsidizing insolvency. The second step would help
depository institutions gain the geographical and asset diversity necessary to shore up
liquidity during runs."
The Problem of the Freedom of the Banks
by Ludwig von Mises
"Everything that has been said in favor of control of the banking system pales into
insignificance beside the objections that can nowadays be advanced against state
regulation of the issue of notes."
State-Tamperings with Money and Banks
1858
by Herbert spencer
"If Government will promptly execute the law against all defaulters, the self-interest
of bankers and traders will do the rest: such evils as would still result from mercantile
dishonesties and imprudences, being evils which legal regulation may augment but cannot
prevent."
Victimological Banking
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Banks should be prudent rather than indiscriminate.
'Withdrawal Tax': How to Stick It to the Big Banks That Got Bailed Out, and
Make Money While You're at It. Pass It On!
by Gary North
"Let's pull our money out of the bailed-out banks and put it in local banks that lend
to locals."
Your Privacy again in danger:
FATF Strikes Again.
July 18, 2003
by Bob Bauman
"Sovereign Society suggests a way to counter FATF and
protect your financial privacy."
What’s Wrong with the IMF? What Would Be Better?
by Allan H. Meltzer
"Created in 1944 to help stabilize debtor countries, the International Monetary Fund
today is a source of instability, chiefly through its subsidies of risky bank loans
and penalties on sound ones. The time has come to rely more on bank capital and
market-based incentives to strengthen the international financial system."
On Private Coinage
by Murray N. Rothbard
Appendix A of
A Ramble 'Round Old Birmingham
by George A. Selgin
"This "missing chapter" is excerpted from an early draft of Professor Selgin's new book,
Good Money, the true and remarkable story of private coinage and banking in Britain
in the early years of the Industrial Revolution (1775–1850)."
The Rise of the State and the Decline of Coins
by Jacob Halbrooks
"Coins were once valuable because of their contents, the artwork on them, and the fact
that they were minted into specific weights; now they are valuable because the government
tells us they are."
Constitution or Competition? Alternative Views on Monetary Reform
by Pamela J. Brown
"Money, for practically as long as it has existed, has been employed to realize two
fundamentally different sorts of goals: production or plunder. In a market economy,
private individuals routinely use monetary institutions in a cooperative way to achieve
voluntary exchanges of goods and services. Political authorities, by contrast, use
monetary institutions in a non-cooperative way to achieve involuntary transfers of
wealth."
Debtflation
September 29, 2010
by David Galland
"As I see it, unlike the inflation of the 1970s that could be treated with a strong dose of tight
monetary policy, the debtflation we now face can only be resolved through default. Given that no U.S.
government will want to join the ranks of history’s sovereign deadbeats, the inflation option remains
the most likely course."
Dialogue #1 On the American Gold Standard
by Gary North
"This dialogue is between two vocal advocates of limited civil government: Private
Money Guy (PMG) and State Money Guy (SMG)."
Dialogue #2 on the American Gold Standard
by Gary North
"The Private Money Guy (PMG) and the State Money Guy (SMG) are still going at it."
Dialogue #3 on the American Gold Standard:
Science Is as Science Does
by Gary North
"The gold standard has advocates, but the problem is, there are competing versions. The
government-enforced gold standard is the one that gets all the space in the history
textbooks. This is because it is the only version governments allow."
Dialogue #4 on the American Gold Standard:
Trust and Distrust in Banking
by Gary North
"The private money guy and the state money guy go at it again."
Dialogue #5 On the American Gold Standard:
Winners and Losers
by Gary North
"The Private Money Guy and the State Money Guy do not seem to be communicating. Like
ships in the night, they pass each other, each flying a flag called 'Gold Standard.'"
End the IMF
November 11, 1963
by Henry Hazlitt
"It is amazing that this system, jerrybuilt at Bretton Woods in 1944, is not only
still tolerated but regarded as practically sacrosanct. Its paternity was not
auspicious. Its two fathers were Harry Dexter White of the United States and
Lord Keynes of England. White, who later served as US executive director of the
IMF, was reported by the FBI in 1945 (as revealed in an announcement by Attorney
General Brownell in 1953) to be a Russian spy."
The Failure of State Money and the Case for Monetary Individualism
by Simon McIlwaine
The Fed as Giant Counterfeiter
February 3, 2010
by Robert Murphy
"Once you understand the details of modern central banking, you are able to step back and see that
it truly is a way for the government to use the printing press to pay its bills. All of the
complicated process of targeting interest rates through buying Treasuries simply hides this essential
point — and perhaps deliberately so."
The Fed Is Lifeblood to the Root of Evil
by Alexander Baker
"Central banking makes possible the expansion of government power in all forms,
most particularly the wicked godfather of all government programs: war. Without
central banking, it is doubtful that any of the great wars of the 20th century,
or the current debacle in Iraq , would have ever taken place, certainly not on
the scale we have seen."
The Fiasco of Fiat Money
June 7, 2012
by Thorsten Polleit
"Fiat money is inflationary; it benefits a few at the expense of many
others; it causes boom-and-bust cycles; it leads to overindebtedness;
it corrupts society's morals; and it will ultimately end in a
depression on a grand scale. All these insights, however, which have
been put forward by the scholars of the Austrian School of economics
years ago, hardly play any role among the efforts of mainstream
economists, central banks, politicians, or bureaucrats in identifying
the root cause of the current financial and economic crisis and,
against this backdrop, formulating proper remedies."
Fiat Money: The Fuel of Government
by Richard Hoste
"According to Paul, the best case against the Fed is simply that it’s immoral. When
government prints a new dollar, the value of each one in circulation goes down. The
government shouldn’t be allowed to print money for the same reason you or I aren’t
allowed to counterfeit."
Fractional Reserve Banking
by Murray N. Rothbard
"The very idea of "deposit insurance" is a swindle; how does one insure an institution
(fractional reserve banking) that is inherently insolvent, and which will fall apart
whenever the public finally understands the swindle?"
From the US to Zimbabwe
June 27, 2009
by The Mogambo Guru
"I notice that I am still using exclamation points to express my profound stupefaction
that the damned Federal Reserve is creating so much money, which means that the value
of the dollar will go down, and we are on the same path as the morons running Zimbabwe
who, I guess you heard, finally created so much money - which created so much inflation
in prices as the oversupply of new money completely diluted the existing stock of
money - that the Zimbabwe dollar is now officially worthless. Worthless!"
How To Create a New World Reserve Currency
by Gary North
"The reason why the BRIC nations – Brazil, Russia India, and China – do not want to see
their currencies replace the dollar is because central bankers and politicians are
Keynesians. They believe in salvation by inflation. The few Chicago School economists
in the staffs are convinced that the central bank can and should inflate to forestall
a recession. That was Milton Friedman's main legacy to the modern world as far as the
modern world's leaders are concerned. He blamed the Federal Reserve System for not
inflating, 1930–33.
This is why we see no candidates to replace the U.S. dollar. Any of the BRIC nations
could establish policies that would elevate its currency to number-one status. But the
price is too high. It is as high as adopting the gold coin standard. It would mean the
end of monetary intervention.
The modern world believes in salvation by inflation. So has every civilization except
one: the Byzantines, who had a stable gold currency for a thousand years after 325 A.D."
Let Unsound Money Wither Away
July 13, 2012
by Joseph T. Salerno
"In the short time I have, I will give a brief description of fractional reserve-banking,
identify the problems it presents in the current institutional setting, and suggest
a potential solution."
The Monetary Breakdown of the West
by Murray N. Rothbard
"To understand the current monetary chaos, it is necessary to trace briefly the international monetary
developments of the 20th century, and to see how each set of unsound inflationist interventions has
collapsed of its own inherent problems, only to set the stage for another round of interventions."
Money for Nothing
by Jacob Halbrooks
"Austrian economists have demonstrated that there is no benefit for an increasing
money supply. No benefit, of course, to the majority of people who use the money,
but much benefit to those who create the money. Money is the medium of exchange for
nearly all trades, and it is the very lifeblood of the economy. The government that
controls the money supply therefore has great influence on the economy, and the result,
aside from a continuously devalued dollar and wealth confiscation, is a cycle of booms
and recessions. If the country operated on a sound currency, it is likely that prices
for goods would actually decrease over time, and there would be no way for any entity
to silently steal from the people. Interest rates, which reflect the time-preference
of capital formation versus consumption, would be dictated by the natural forces of the
economy, and the business cycle would die out. Instead, we are saddled with a system
that distorts the true wishes of millions of people voluntarily interacting and enriches
a few privileged bankers and politicians at the expense of the people. The Federal
Reserve must be abolished."
Money, the State and Modern Mercantilism
by Murray N. Rothbard
"Of all the economic problems, money is possibly the most tangled, and perhaps where
we most need perspective. Money, moreover, is the economic area most encrusted and
entangled with centuries of government meddling."
The Moral Issue of Honest Money
February 1982
by Gary North
"The appeal of specie metals is not the lure of magical talismans, as some critics of
gold seem to imply. Gold is not a barbarous relic. Gold is a metal which, over millennia,
has become acceptable as a means of payment in a highly complex institutional
arrangement: the monetary system. Gold is part of civilization’s most important economic
institution, the division-of-labor-based monetary system. Without this division of labor,
which monetary calculation has made possible, most of the world’s population would be
dead within a year, and probably within a few weeks. The alternative to the free market
social order is government tyranny, some military- based centralized allocation system.
Any attempt by the state to alter men’s voluntary decisions in the area of exchange,
including their choice of exchange units, represents the true relic of barbarism, namely,
the use of force to determine the outcome of men’s decisions."
Not Good as Gold
by David Gordon
"The case against global currency schemes, whether Chinese or American"
Of Paper 'Money' and 'Paper' Terrorism
by William Norman Grigg
"'Terrorism,' as the term is commonly used, refers to the privatization of the lethal
political violence carried out by way of government monopoly.
Those accused of "paper terrorism" are following that logic in bureaucratic fashion. They
emulate the behavior of the Federal Reserve and its seraglio of fractional reserve banks
by creating worthless but official-looking financial paper, and they mimic the behavior
of the banking system's enforcement mechanism by filing legal documents intended to
punish those who don't play along in the scheme by exchanging valuable goods and services
for worthless paper."
Paper Money and Tyranny
September 30, 2003
by Ron Paul
"Liberty is virtually impossible to protect when the people allow their government to
print money at will. Inevitably, the left will demand more economic interventionism,
the right more militarism and empire building.
Both sides, either inadvertently or deliberately, will foster corporatism."
The Solution
by Murray N. Rothbard
"To save our economy from destruction and from the eventual holocaust of run away
inflation, we the people must take the money-supply function back from the government.
Money is far too important to be left in the hands of bankers and of Establishment
economists and financiers. To accomplish this goal, money must be returned to the market
economy, with all monetary functions performed within the structure of the rights of
private property and of the free-market economy."
Taking Money Back
by Murray N. Rothbard
"There is no aspect of the free-market economy that has suffered more scorn and contempt
from "modern" economists, whether frankly statist Keynesians or allegedly
"free market" Chicagoites, than has gold. Gold, not long ago hailed as the basic staple
and groundwork of any sound monetary system, is now regularly denounced as a "fetish" or,
as in the case of Keynes, as a "barbarous relic." Well, gold is indeed a "relic" of
barbarism in one sense; no "barbarian" worth his salt would ever have accepted the phony
paper and bank credit that we modern sophisticates have been bamboozled into using as
money."
Taking Money Back: Part I
Part II: Fractional Reserve Banking
Part III: The Solution
by Murray N. Rothbard
"To save our economy from destruction and from the eventual holocaust of run away
inflation, we the people must take the money-supply function back from the government.
Money is far too important to be left in the hands of bankers and of Establishment
economists and financiers. To accomplish this goal, money must be returned to the
market economy, with all monetary functions performed within the structure of the
rights of private property and of the free-market economy."
We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Gold Standard
August 28, 2010
by Michael S. Rozeff
"We don’t need no stinkin’ gold standard that is another version of government-controlled
currencies, accompanied by government suppression of monetary freedom and privately or
market-produced money."
What has government done to our money?
by Murray N. Rothbard
"Historically, money was one of the first things controlled by government, and the
free market "revolution" of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made very little
dent in the monetary sphere. So it is high time that we turn fundamental attention to
the life-blood of our economy - money."
Why the Business Cycle Happens
by Murray N. Rothbard
"Mises’ theory shows the complete workings of the boom-bust cycle: the inflationary
injection of bank credit, fostered by government; a boom marked by malinvestments caused
by inflation’s tampering with the signals of the free market; the end of inflation
revealing these unfortunate malinvestments; and finally, the depression as the correction
by the free market of the wastes and distortions of the boom."
The Real Solution to the Debt Problem
September 16, 2011
by David S. D'Amato
"Within the present system, a balanced budget could only ever mean stifling and
overwhelming levels of taxation, which would even further serve to blight the
economy. A true remedy to the condition of government debt is the elimination
of its underlying incentives and root cause. It's time to free economic life
from the burden of the Federal Reserve System, letting individuals' voluntary
exchanges decide questions of money and credit."
Repudiate the National Debt
by Murray N. Rothbard
"If I borrow money from a mortgage bank, I have made a contract to transfer my money to
a creditor at a future date; in a deep sense, he is the true owner of the money at that
point, and if I don't pay I am robbing him of his just property. But when government
borrows money, it does not pledge its own money; its own resources are not liable.
Government commits not its own life, fortune, and sacred honor to repay the debt,
but ours. This is a horse, and a transaction, of a very different color."
The Upside of Government Default
February 16, 2012
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
"There is a good chance that the U.S. government will be forced to default
on its explicit and implicit promises within the next few decades. Fortunately,
the state government experience of the 1840s suggests that this may provide
the best and most durable long-run solution."
What Is Money?
Part 11: The Great Default
by Gary North
"The governments of every major nation are going to default on their debts."
Why Isn't Anyone Talking About Writing Off 3 Trillion Euros of Bad Debt?
November 29, 2011
by Charles Hugh Smith
"The only solution to bad debt is to write it off – renounce it all. Why
aren't those who took the risks for their own private gain being forced
to absorb the losses?"
The Case for a Genuine Gold Dollar
by Murray N. Rothbard
"It is my contention that there should be no mystery about the unusual chronic inflation
plaguing the world since the 1930s. The dollar is the American currency unit (and the
pound sterling, the franc, the mark, and the like, are equivalent national currency
units), and since 1933, there have been no effective restrictions on the issue of these
currencies by the various nation-states. In effect, each nation-state, since 1933, and
especially since the end of all gold redemption in 1971, has had the unlimited right and
power to create paper currency which will be legal tender in its own geographic area. It
is my contention that if any person or organization ever obtains the monopoly right to
create money, that person or organization will tend to use this right to the hilt. The
reason is simple: Anyone or any group empowered to manufacture money virtually out of
thin air will tend to exercise that right, and with considerable enthusiasm. For the
power to create money is a heady and profitable privilege indeed."
The Case for Natural Money
by George F. Smith
"Studying Jörg Guido Hülsmann's latest book, The Ethics of Money Production,
is a vastly enriching experience. After building his case for natural money on the
inviolability of an individual's right to his own property, he then shows us how the
state has spent the last 400 years usurping this right for the benefit of a privileged
few through its protection of fractional-reserve banking."
Digital Cash and Monetary Freedom
by Jon W. Matonis
Ending the Monetary Fiasco — Returning to Sound Money
by Thorsten Polleit
"This talk was given as the Ludwig von Mises Lecture at the Austrian Scholars
Conference on March 14, 2009."
The Ethics of Money Production: Accessible and Wise
December 16, 2010
by Andy Duncan
"An essential book to plug this observational gap is
The Ethics of Money Production, by Jörg Guido Hülsmann, which is
freely available as a PDF from the Ludwig von Mises Institute."
Freedom to Choose Your Own Money
March 10, 2012
by Carl Watner
"The only monetary system to take the place of Federal Reserve notes, if
they were to fall into disuse, should be a voluntary one; a monetary system
in which people freely choose what they use for money."
A Free-Market Monetary System
by F. A. Hayek
"A lecture delivered at the Gold and Monetary Conference, New Orleans, November 10, 1977."
Free-Market Money: A Key to Peace
January 2008
by Steven Horwitz
"For hundreds of years governments have intervened in monetary institutions in order
to use them to raise revenue through the manipulation of money and credit, and most
often that revenue has been used to make war."
Free Money Is Sound Money
June 1975
by Hans F. Sennholz
"The history of the gold standard heralds the principles and achievements of free
and honest money. The history of fiat money is little more than a register of monetary
follies and inflations."
Gold-Exchange Standard, Gold, and Monetary Freedom
by Michael S. Rozeff
"Monetary freedom and its possible use of gold as money are not the same as the gold
standard courtesy of a State-run system. Defects in the latter say nothing at all about
the merits or demerits of the former."
HARD AND PRIVATE...THAT'S HOW I LIKE MY MONEY
March 15, 2012
by Wendy McElroy
"It is heartening to hear more and more people call for a return to the gold standard and
a halt to printing money at will – a policy that has gutted the value of currencies
around the world. The voices usually stop short, however. They get the hard part right
but forget about the private. In other words, they want government-issued money to return
to a gold standard without questioning whether government should be in the currency
business in the first place, let alone enjoy a monopoly."
"Hard Money" in the Voluntaryist Tradition
by Carl Watner
"In the Southeast during the Civil War it became customary to specify the settlement
of monetary obligations in "Becthler gold" rather than Union coin or Confederate or
state currencies. A similar preference manifested itself in Colorado, where Clark,
Gruber & Co. coins were the preffered media of exchange during the same era."
Have Anthropologists Overturned Menger?
September 1, 2011
by Robert P. Murphy
"It is true that Carl Menger's account of the origin of money is largely a
form of armchair reasoning. In that respect, anthropologists with economic
training have much to offer in filling in the story with actual historical
details.
Unfortunately, David Graeber's rejection of the standard account leads me to
believe that he doesn't really understand the claims that people like Menger
and Mises made. Furthermore, his own explanation flies in the face of not
only basic economic logic but also well-documented examples of the emergence
of a new money."
Jean Buridan and the Theory of Money
by Murray N. Rothbard
"Thus, not only did Jean Buridan found the theory of money as a market phenomenon; he
thereby took money out of the mystique of being solely a creation of the state, and put
it on a par with other goods as a product of the marketplace."
Leave Money Production to the Market
May 14, 2012
by Jeffrey M. Herbener
"No one can describe today the configuration of commodity money and money certificates
that entrepreneurs would bring about if permitted to operate private enterprises in
their production any more than one could have predicted in 1900 the development of
the 21st-century automobile industry or predicted in 1950 the 21st-century
consumer-electronics industry. What we do know is that their production would be
regulated by profit and loss and therefore would result in the satisfaction of
people's preferences. The monetary inflation and credit expansion of our elastic
currency system would be eliminated and with it the booms and busts that have
plagued our history."
Market Money and Free Banking
October 1999
by Bettina Bien Greaves
"The monetary problem that the advocates of free banking are trying to solve, as
described by modern monetary economists, is very complex. But this complexity is
not a consequence of the economics of money. Rather it is caused by governmental,
not economic, factors—especially the designation of government’s notes as legal
tender for the payment of debts. The complexity of the monetary situation is the
outcome of many regulations and controls."
Metal-backed currency vs. violence-backed currency
by Patri Friedman
"The people behind the Liberty Dollar have been arrested for competing with government
issued paper currency, by issuing their own commodity-backed currency. Fiat currency is
essentially backed by violence, in that if you don't accept it for payments (as a
merchant) or try to compete with it, you will get tossed in jail. It is not used because
it is superior, it is used because people with guns will stop you if you try to offer
an alternative."
The Micropolitics of Free Market Money: A Proposal
by Antoine Clarke
Money And Freedom by Hans F. Sennholz
reviewed by Richard A. White
October 1986
"Books which espouse sound economic analysis are essential if the present monetary
system is to be reformed. Sennholz’s Money and Freedom is such a book. It
provides explanations of past mistakes and solutions to present problems. The clarity
with which Sennholz expresses his ideas makes complicated economic ideas understandable
to the reader, and even those who disagree with Sennholz will benefit from his analysis.
The government money monopoly has failed. Only when freedom is restored to money will
a sound currency be established."
Money and Freedom
January 25, 2012
by Joseph T. Salerno
"The historical embodiment of monetary freedom is the gold standard. The era
of its greatest flourishing was not coincidentally the 19th century, the
century in which classical liberal ideology reigned, a century of
unprecedented material progress and peaceful relations between nations.
Unfortunately, the monetary freedom represented by the gold standard,
along with many other freedoms of the classical liberal era, was brought
to a calamitous end by World War I."
Money and How to Privatise It: An Introduction
by Roderick Moore
Money and the Individual
by Murray N. Rothbard
"Ludwig von Mises's The Theory of Money and Credit is, quite simply, one of
the outstanding contributions to economic thought in the 20th century. It came as the
culmination and fulfillment of the "Austrian School" of economics, and yet, in so doing,
founded a new school of thought of its own."
Money in a Free Nation
by Joanna Parker
Presents a good case for hard money and e-gold.
Money: Sound and Unsound
December 3, 2010
reviewed by Mark Thornton
"The book does a marvelous job of presenting all the important theoretical debates
on money. There are of course some complex historical episodes that are beautifully
disentangled, particularly with regard to the Great Depression. The book is filled
with analysis of policy, including some of the very best discussions of inflation
and deflation. Finally, in terms of moving forward, the book contains several
important essays on the gold standard and how to implement it."
A new Europe of competing currencies
May 25, 2012
by Samuel Brittan
"But with several competing currencies, there would be a greater chance of
the managers of some of them getting things more nearly right."
On Money, Inflation and Government
by Ron Paul
"The Federal Reserve, a quasi-government entity, should not be creating money or
determining interest rates, as this causes malinvestment and excessive debt to accumulate.
Centrally planned, government-manipulated economies always fail eventually. The collapse
of communism and the failure of socialism should have made this apparent. Even the most
educated, well-intentioned central planners cannot plan the market better than the
market itself."
Roads and Money
Why government control isn't necessary.
June 29, 2010
by James Leroy Wilson
"But the State doesn't need to build roads, and the State doesn't need to create money.
Voluntary cooperation can produce both."
Statement Introducing the Free Competition in Currency Act
December 9, 2009
by Ron Paul
"In conclusion, Madame Speaker, allowing for competing currencies will allow market
participants to choose a currency that suits their needs, rather than the needs of
the government."
To Save Our Economy From Destruction
November 1995
by Murray N. Rothbard
"To save our economy from destruction and from the eventual holocaust of run away inflation, we
the people must take the money-supply function back from the government. Money is far too important
to be left in the hands of bankers and of Establishment economists and financiers. To accomplish this
goal, money must be returned to the market economy, with all monetary functions performed within the
structure of the rights of private property and of the free-market economy."
Toward a New Monetary Order
June 25, 2010
by Thorsten Polleit
"The global monetary fiasco is a reminder that it is high time to seek monetary reform
along the lines of that which is recommended by the Austrian School of economics. It is
the only way to protect and maintain peoples' freedom and economic well-being."
The Transition to Monetary Freedom
1982
by Ron Paul
"We propose that the following language become the 27th Ammendment to the Constitution:
Neither Congress nor any state shall make anything a tender in payment of private
debts, nor shall they charter any bank or note-issuing institution, and states
shall make only gold and silver coins as tender in payment of public taxes,
duties, and dues."
What Is Money?
by Gary North
"Through the influence of the FED among foreign central banks, and through the influence
of the top dozen American graduate schools, the confusion over what money is has spread
to the entire world."
What Is Money?
Part 2: Precious Metal Coinage
by Gary North
"The case for precious metal coinage as the best form of money arises from two
things: first, an understanding of how money developed in the past; second, an
understanding of economic theory."
What Is Money?
Part 3: Schizophrenic Economists
by Gary North
"Monetary policy today is set by banks that are not governed by the same theory of
contracts that binds individuals."
What Is Money?
Part 4: Bait and Switch
by Gary North
"Bait and switch is at the heart of all fractional reserve banking. It is not
illegal. It is the heart of the modern economy."
What Is Money?
Part 5: Fractional Reserve Banking
by Gary North
"The heart of the modern monetary system is fractional reserve banking. This system is
based on fraud. At the very heart of the modern economy is fraud – fraud on a gigantic
scale."
What Is Money?
Part 6: What Makes Money Different?
by Gary North
"An increase in the money supply conveys no verifiable social benefit. Early owners and
early users gain benefits. Late-users experience losses. There is no way of knowing
whether there are net gains or losses from an addition of money. But in times of mass
inflation and then hyperinflation, the losses become obvious. The increased money supply
forces a society back to barter, which is inefficient compared to a money economy where
the money supply is stable. Zimbabwe has experienced this. That nation has been
impoverished."
What Is Money?
Part 7: Gresham's Law
by Gary North
"A correct version of Gresham's Law is this:
"In an economy with a government-legislated fixed price between two currency units,
the artificially overvalued currency drives out of circulation the artificially
undervalued currency."
This does not have quite the same ring to it as the more familiar version."
What Is Money?
Part 8: Why Gold Has No Intrinsic Value
by Gary North
"Whenever you hear someone speak of gold's having intrinsic value, you can be sure that
he has a confused theory of economics in general and monetary theory in particular. There
is no such thing as a free lunch. There is also no such thing as intrinsic value."
What Is Money?
Part 9: Monetary Reform
by Gary North
"Central banking is the most brilliant device of profit-seeking monopolists and
oligopolists in human history. Nothing else comes close. Hardly anyone understands it
so there is no organized opposition."
What Is Money?
Part 10: When Money Dies
by Gary North
"Hyperinflation in a modern urban nation would kill people. I think it would kill a
lot of people."
What Is Money?
Part 11: The Great Default
by Gary North
"The governments of every major nation are going to default on their debts."
What Is Money?
Part 12: Why Central Banking Persists
by Gary North
"Mises and the Austrian School economists present their monetary policy in terms of the
general laws of the free market. In contrast their opponents – whose name is
legion – argue that monetary policy must be consciously developed and enforced by
national governments and government-owned or protected central banks."
What Is Money?
Part 13: Exported Inflation
by Gary North
"Bank-created inflation is not exported. It is merely copied. When foreign prices rise
alongside America's rising prices, this is because foreign central banks are matching
the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. Domestic digital inflation is always a
domestic bank–inflicted wound. Central banks compete with each other to debauch their
domestic currencies. This is not free market competition. It is competitive plunder by
government-licensed counterfeiters."
What Is Money?
Part 14: Money and Uncertainty
by Gary North
"The free market lets us buy and sell uncertainty. Buyers of uncertainty spend money, buy
capital goods, and restructure production."
What Is Money?
Part 15: Hoarding, Old and New
by Gary North
"Keynesian economists hate Uncle Scrooge and everything he stands for. He knows how
to make lots of money. He stores up gold. He is the essence of the non-consumer. He
is an anti-Keynesian – in thought, word, and deed."
What Is Money?
Part 16: Inflation and the Savior State
by Gary North
"The savior state always becomes the inflating state. It promises more healing than
it can deliver. It taxes. Then it inflates. Then it defaults. Its default creates hard
times for court prophets."
What Is Money?
Part 17: Conclusion
by Gary North
"There must be a default at some point. The question is: "Which kind?" If the central
bank ceases to inflate, a recession begins. If the government or the central bank refuses
to intervene, many banks go under. This shrinks the money supply. The recession becomes
a depression."
Can Gold Cause the Boom-Bust Cycle?
June 28, 2010
by Robert P. Murphy
"In the real world, of course, the real danger of credit expansion and the boom-bust
cycle comes from fiat money and fractional-reserve banking. Yet it is still important for
economists in the Austrian tradition to think through hypothetical scenarios in order to
refine our thinking and weed out any inconsistencies in our principles."
The Case for a Genuine Gold Dollar
by Murray N. Rothbard
"It is my contention that there should be no mystery about the unusual chronic inflation
plaguing the world since the 1930s. The dollar is the American currency unit (and the
pound sterling, the franc, the mark, and the like, are equivalent national currency
units), and since 1933, there have been no effective restrictions on the issue of these
currencies by the various nation-states. In effect, each nation-state, since 1933, and
especially since the end of all gold redemption in 1971, has had the unlimited right and
power to create paper currency which will be legal tender in its own geographic area. It
is my contention that if any person or organization ever obtains the monopoly right to
create money, that person or organization will tend to use this right to the hilt. The
reason is simple: Anyone or any group empowered to manufacture money virtually out of
thin air will tend to exercise that right, and with considerable enthusiasm. For the
power to create money is a heady and profitable privilege indeed."
Combine the Power of the Internet and the Gold Standard
by Wayne Dawson
The e-gold system, which already exists, would be a suitable medium
of exchange for a libertarian nation.
Defend the Gold Standard
by Bob Murphy
"It's true that the government can always renege on its pledge to maintain a fixed peg
to gold, but at least everybody would know exactly when the government cheated."
Gold: A Valuable Thing to Store
March 4, 2011
by Gary North
"Gold is a valuable thing to store. However, it is not a store of value.
Gold has intrinsic properties that make it valuable. However, it does not
have intrinsic value."
Gold, Freedom and the Fed
November 27, 2009
by Jacob Hornberger
"With the possible exception of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal agency that is the greatest
threat to the financial well-being and freedom of the American people is the Federal Reserve. This is
the agency that has the power to wipe you out. It can destroy all your savings and the value of your
income. Worst of all, it can do all this secretly and surreptitiously."
Gold: Now That's a Track Record
March 17, 2011
by Doug French
"Concluding his case against gold, Altfest writes that if he
"were a border guard today who received a 'gift' of gold, I would
cash it in and buy stocks." There may be a day when the professor/money
manager needs to buy his way out of New York. I hope he seriously doesn't
think he can get the job done by slipping a stock certificate
to the border guard."
The Gold Standard
by Ludwig von Mises
"The gold standard is certainly not a perfect or ideal standard. There is no such thing
as perfection in human things. But nobody is in a position to tell us how something more
satisfactory could be put in place of the gold standard."
The Gold Standard: Myths and Lies
June 13, 2011
by Robert P. Murphy
"Precisely because a gold standard is such a hot topic lately, it's important
for people to understand its rationale. In the present article I'll try to
clear up a few misconceptions."
The Gold Standard Never Dies
November 12, 2010
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Gold actually hasn’t gone anywhere. It is still the hedge of choice, the thing that every investor
embraces in time of trouble. It remains the most liquid, most stable, most fungible, most marketable,
and most reliable store of wealth on the planet. It has a more dependable buy-sell spread than any
other commodity in existence, given its value per unit of weight."
Gold: The Market's Global Currency
November 11, 2010
by Robert P. Murphy
"Regardless of the machinations of the political insiders, the laws of economics cannot be denied.
Central bankers cannot be trusted with the printing press, especially when there is no formal check
on their inflationary policies. It is no coincidence that gold is hitting such heights as investors
the world over hunker down for what may very well be a collapse of the dollar system."
Gold vs Paper
July 13, 1953
by Ludwig von Mises
"The excellence of the gold standard is to be seen in the fact that it makes the
monetary unit's purchasing power independent of the arbitrary and vacillating policies
of governments, political parties, and pressure groups. Historical experience, especially
in the last decades, has clearly shown the evils inherent in a national currency system
that lacks this independence."
The Goodness of Gold
May 8, 2009
by Silvia Santacruz
"The demand for the precious metal has propelled economic growth in the developing world as investment
in exploration has led to significant job creation and improvements in health."
How Gold Was Money--How Gold Could Be Money Again
April 1995
by Richard H. Timberlake
"The only way to ensure that gold becomes a viable money is first to separate the
gold from the state and the state from any further role in the operation of a gold
money. Indeed, the separation of gold and the state would begin as an economizing
measure--a form of privatization. Here are all those thousands of tons of gold lying
idle and useless. Give them back to the people from whom the gold was unconstitutionally
snatched in 1934."
How to Defend the Free Market Gold Coin Standard: Stop Defending
the Government Counterfeits
December 27, 2010
by Gary North
"First and foremost, a government-guaranteed gold standard is a rotten idea. It
is just a little better than a fiat-money standard. But advocates of "the gold
standard" almost always mean "a government-guaranteed gold standard." Therein
lies the problem. Governments lie. They cheat. They steal."
How to Own Physical and Paper Gold as Trend Continues Towards $1500
September 8, 2010
Brian Sylvester Interviews Louis James
"In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Louis offers tips on how to own
physical gold and "paper" gold, and even picks some junior gold and silver plays with significant
potential."
How to Return to the Gold Standard
November 1995
by Bettina Bien Greaves
"Let's consider possible ways for transforming our present paper and credit monetary
system, based on fractional reserve banking, into a gold standard. There may be better
ways and worse ways. Unfortunately the science of economics cannot prescribe a correct,
scientific or “right” way. It can only help us choose among alternatives by analyzing
their various consequences. A review of monetary history will also be helpful."
Is Gold Money?
by William Rees-Mogg
"We need also to have permanent money, which can be relied upon to survive, even though
its value may decline over time. The historic value of gold has been astonishingly stable
over centuries."
A Private-Enterprise Gold Standard?
August 1997
by W. J. Brogdon, Jr.
"With all the debate about establishing a gold standard and multinational fiat money,
why can’t businesses simply quote the prices of their products in gold? Why indeed
can’t they establish a de facto gold standard? One tiny company is betting that it
can be a start."
Prosperity Strangled by Gold?
by William Graham Sumner
"In this essay from 1896, Sumner addresses the arguments of supporters of bimetallism, and
instead supports a gold standard."
Putting the Country Back on Gold
July 28, 2011
by Robert P. Murphy
"When it comes to "second-best" policy recommendations in a world of government
intervention, we can never find perfection (by definition). But if we are going
to have the government providing a monopoly of domestic currency, Ludwig
von Mises's proposal for a return to a gold standard is theoretically elegant
and eminently practical."
US To Return to Gold Standard. Really?
July 15, 2011
by Robert Blumen
"For adherents to Murray Rothbard’s theory of banking, the gold standard
means gold as money proper with banks holding 100% reserves against
demand deposits. Under these conditions there is no necessity or even
any purpose to having a central bank and devaluation is a form of default."
What Constitutes a Gold Standard
by Edwin Walter Kemmerer
"The generic gold standard may be briefly defined as a monetary system where the
unit of value — in terms of which prices, wages, and debts are customarily
expressed and paid — consists of the value of a fixed quantity of gold in a large
international market that is substantially free."
Why Gold?
October 7, 2010
by Richard C.B. Johnsson
"There are a number of reasons that make gold special and it turns out that most of them are
quite natural."
Why Statists Hate Gold
June 26, 2010
by Jacob Hornberger
"Amidst the increasing calls among statists for increased federal spending, one can practically feel
the deep, visceral hatred for gold arising within statists. The reason is that statists know that gold
is a communications vehicle that tells people what government officials are doing to their money.
That's the last thing that statists want people to find out."