In the period from 1913 to 2007, the Fed — implementing its mission to "stabilize the price level" — destroyed over 97 percent of the purchasing power of the dollar. (For comparison's sake, note that the value of the dollar had increased slightly during the 100 years before the Fed was created.)
Central bank's and government's loose monetary and fiscal policies are instrumental in the weakening of the process of real savings formation through the diversion of real savings from wealth generators to non-wealth-generating activities.
Wall Street — especially since this financial crisis began — has been anything but a bastion of laissez-faire capitalism.
I will not contend that this scheme is free from all the defects inherent in government interference with economic affairs.
Professor White's lecture showed that, historically, a free-market approach to the banking industry is less prone to crises and operates efficiently through the invisible hand of the market.
There are only inflationists on Capital Hill and Obama has a bigger bag of boondoggles than FDR could have ever imagined.
Even if the "debt deflation" scenario is generally right, the absolute effect could be swamped by the relative effects, meaning that retirees on fixed dollar incomes could still get wiped out when their standard monthly expenses rise.
