Monetary Theory

Modern monetary theory is an idea and an inchoate theory that lacks serious defenders.

Ryan, Tho, and Dr. Jonathan Newman discuss recent economics headlines, including interventions to prop up the yen, a bad jobs report, and troubling signs in bond markets.

Bob returns to the fractional reserve banking debate to clarify a point the critics keep missing: in the Mises-Hayek-Rothbard framework, it's fractional reserve banking itself that sets the boom-bust cycle in motion, not merely central banks.

Mainstream economists tend to think of cash balances as the heart of new savings. Actually, real savings involves much more than that.

Scotland's celebrated free banks were neither free nor superior.

In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan sits down with Mark Thornton to talk through the economic trends fueling today's unrest.

"Their red ink is your black ink." Jonathan Newman on what MMT leaves out; namely, how the government actually makes the payment.

The recession isn't the disease, it's the cure. Patrick Newman on why the Austrians blame the boom, not the bust, and trace it all to one cause.

Your bank says the money in your checking account is yours, available in full, any time. Its own balance sheet says it's holding a fraction of it. Jonathan Newman on what banks actually do with your deposits.

Try paying for a roof in moonwalk lessons. That's the problem money solves. Sandy Klein on why barter fails and how gold became money.