EcPoFi recaps last year’s development of the True Money Supply (TMS), a monetary aggregate developed by Murray Rothbard and myself in the 1980s. The author of the post points out that in 2014, “the money supply increased by a total of $731 billion, the fourth biggest expansion ever recorded,” although its rate of growth was 7.4%,
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has just launched the Program on Monetary Policy under the direction of Scott Sumner, Professor of Economics at Bentley University and editor of the influential blog The Money Illusion . Sumner is a leading proponent of the old Friedmanite ”rules-based approach to monetary policy,” wherein
As I reported recently, banks are beginning to collaborate in the campaign by governments to stamp out the use of cash among the public. Chase, for example, rolled out a new program in several markets in March that restricts borrowers from using cash for making payments on credit cards, equity lines, mortgages and auto loans. Even more troubling
The policy of the Bernanke-Yellen Fed to whet investors’ appetite for risk by maintaining short-term interest rates at zero in order to pump up investment spending seems to be working quite well. Here is some anecdotal evidence as reported by a friend: I tried tapping private banks for a business loan, for fun, last month, for a business that I
Lyndon McClellan is a small entrepreneur who owns and operates L & M Convenience Mart in Fairmont, North Carolina. L & M comprises a gas station, convenience store, and a small restaurant serving hot dogs, hamburgers, and catfish sandwiches. One day last July, more than a dozen federal, state and local law enforcement agents swarmed Mr.
In his Economic Viewpoint memo yesterday, Brendan Brown, Executive Director and Chief Economist of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International, surveyed the crowded field of prospective Republican Presidential nominees on the subject of radically reforming the Fed and pronounced it sadly lacking. Since Brown is one of the few financial commentators
There is an interesting article in the NYT on the emergence of alternative paper currencies. “Artisanal” or “low-batch” currencies have been popping up all over in the past decade. They have been issued by municipal governments in Great Britain, a private nonprofit entity in Amsterdam, and a regional network of businesses, nonprofits, and
George Selgin has written an interesting post on Hayek and free banking . Unfortunately, his otherwise instructive post is marred by a few lapses of scholarship. In a nutshell, Selgin credits Hayek with inspiring him and others to create the “Modern Free Banking School.” Selgin argues that Hayek was a life-long opponent of free banking,
Last week the Greek government imposed capital controls to prevent cash from escaping from the Greek banking system, which is on the brink of collapse. These repressive financial measures, which were invented by “Hitler’s banker” Hjalmar Schacht in the 1930s, include the closing of banks, limiting cash withdrawals from ATMs to 60 euros ($67)
A few hours ago, a Greek minister for administrative reform, G eorge Katrougalos, told a radio station in Athens that reopening the banks “probably is not technically possible this week.” The minister’s choice of words is, to be charitable, less then ingenuous. Even with capital controls in place that limit the daily amount that can be
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.