Money and Banking

A few more banking crises will likely cause confidence in the fractional-reserve banking system to evaporate.

Recorded 21 March 2013 at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.

From the session on “Advances in the Theory of Entrepreneurship,” presented at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.

From the session on “Monetary Theory and Policy,” presented at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.

The actual aim of the recent flood of laws rendering cash transactions less convenient or limiting or even prohibiting them is to force the public at large to make payments through the financial system in order to prop up the unstable fractional-reserve banks and, more importantly, to expand the ability of governments to spy on and keep track of their citizens’ most private financial dealings.

As we review the Fed’s operations in 2012 we see the usual outcomes. The banking sector has benefited from its operations (unusually so, thanks to the
    continued interest on reserve policy) and the government has received a free lunch by having a ready buyer for its ever-increasing debt.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, President Obama made his now famous claim that “you didn’t build that” in reference to the infrastructure that businesses use to provide goods and services to customers.

The Free Market 31, no. 2 (February 2013)

Why should a price having fallen indicate that it will continue to fall? Why should past trends continue?

Once a fiat money system has been put in place, banks and bankers have joined the vast criminal enterprise that is the state.