Money and Banking

Recorded at The Mises Circle in Manhattan, on May 22nd, 2010.

"Keynes argues as if the government — or rather, 'forces outside the classical scheme of thought' — could control the volume without affecting any other aspect of the market economy. What sort of powers would government have to wield to be able to exert such a force?"

"The only possible solution to the inflation problem is an open opposition to the unions and to the idea that higher money wages are the only means for improving the condition of the masses."

"Mises's desideratum was thus not a 'neutral' money, or even a practical approximation of it; rather, it was the complete elimination of 'human influence' on the purchasing power of money."

"Make no mistake, this supposed 'containment' boondoggle was yet another bailout of the world's largest banks. A majority of the PIIGS's debt is held by large French and German banks."

"Governmental taxation provides one mean by which fiat money could come into existence."

"Nothing has been easier than to treat with contempt all the legislative provisions for the protection of the monetary standard. All governments, even the weakest and most incapable, have managed it without difficulty."

He could not see also that these producers did not create such needs, but instead were fulfilling them and thereby removing the want and pain of their customers and adding to their happiness and standard of living. If he had gone that far, he would have realized the nonsense of his dog-eat-dog, or what would now be called his "zero-sum-game" view of the marketplace.

It is time to challenge head on the nonsense of the Phillips Curve, Keynesianism, and inflationary theft, and all the rest.

From Part I of A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II: “The History of Money and Bank