Money and Banking

The essential reason that a 100-percent-reserve gold standard should be the ultimate goal of monetary reform is that is would secure the economic system against the evils both of inflation and of deflation-depression. 

Monetary competition, a result of the abolition of legal tender, would seriously curtail the politization of the euro. But is it possible to completely separate the euro from politics without returning 

Austrians have demonstrated that recessions—and depressions—are the inevitable result of central bank intervention in the economy. 

Austrian monetary inflation theory claims that changes in the money supply are disproportionately distributed throughout an economy, and as a result wealth inequality is exacerbated. 

Austrian business cycle theory has been criticized on the basis of “rational expectations.” That is, reasonably high quality entrepreneurs—which are required for economic growth

The practice of fractional-reserve banking is the main factor responsible for the emergence and development of the central bank. 

Free banking is a process where the market makes the ultimate judgment on where to draw the line between money as a present good and money as a future good.

Whether the current recovery will strengthen, which appears to be the prevailing consensus, or whether unforeseen events in the financial arena abort it prematurely, 

The present work is a doctoral dissertation written at the University of Hamburg. It deals with Mises’s work on monetary economics and business cycle theory. 

Complete with an extensive new preface, the republication of Larry Sechrest’s Free Banking is well-timed. The new preface is an important contribution to the ongoing debate within Austrian circles