Money and Banking

A policy of currency devaluation can only make things much worse.
 

It is not just rockets and bombs that are fired; war is raged on the economic front, with currency manipulation as the primary weapon.

Scottish banks were not free (they too pyramided on the Bank of England) and, not surprisingly, they worked no better than the English banks.

Events have concretely demonstrated that the risk expectations on Greek debt should be reset higher.

Today's banks are not free-market institutions. They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing.

Contrary to the assertions of these pundits, an economy does not need mountains of debt — whether government or private — in order to grow. Corporations can still raise needed financing through issuing equity. There are pros and cons to debt financing, but it isn't necessary for a strong economy.

Excerpted from the two-part speech presented in Vienna, Austria, on 21 September 2011.

Austrians have a different way of understanding history. For Rothbard, for example, a particular price datum is, no less than the Spanish-American War, a historical event, and its causes must be traced back to the subjective aims governing human plans and choices.

From Man, Economy, and State, narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.