This book provides the intelligent layperson with a concise yet comprehensive overview of the theory, history, and practice of money and banking, with a focus on the United States. Although the author considers himself an Austrian school economist, most of the material in this book is a neutral presentation of historical facts and an objective description of the mechanics of money creation in today’s world.
The book is intended to be a reference for all readers, whether “Austrian” or not, and to bridge the gap by providing a crash course in the necessary theory and history while keeping the discussion tethered to current events.
— From the Introduction
No content found
Robert P. Murphy is a Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute. He is the author of numerous books: Contra Krugman: Smashing the Errors of America’s Most Famous Keynesian; Chaos Theory; Lessons for the Young Economist; Choice: Cooperation, Enterprise, and Human Action; The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism; Understanding Bitcoin (with Silas Barta), among others. He is also host of The Human Action Podcast and The Bob Murphy Show.
Dr. Robert Murphy explains why America’s chronic trade deficits trace to Nixon’s 1971 gold exit—not China—and how a popular reading of Triffin’s “dilemma” confuses the issue.
Bob revisits capital and interest theory to show why the textbook result “interest = MPK” only holds in a one-good world, and why in actual markets the interest rate emerges from time, prices, and capital valuation—not raw productivity.
Prompted by an online debate about whether economics belongs with the hard sciences, Bob reviews common defenses of mainstream practice and explains why they don’t settle the scientific status of the field.
Robert P. Murphy
Published 2021 by the Mises Institute.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue
Auburn, Ala. 36832
ISBN: 978-1-61016-740-6
