Money and Banking

Recorded at Mises University 2007.

...it’s easier to use the new $200,000 note issued by

This 1912 book is Mises’ first great theory. Mises agreed with Menger about the spontaneous emergence of money. No government is needed. Mises used a logical proof called the regression theory. It explained why money is demanded in its own right.

Aside from the error identified by Shostak this morning, another error concerning financial markets is th

Chris McGreal reports from Harare:

Mises knew why abandoning the principle of sound money would be so problematic: "In the opinion of the public, more inflation and more credit expansion are the only remedy against the evils which inflation and credit expansion have brought about."

The present glut in the money markets, with excessively cheap money and its attendant evils and dangers to the credit structure of the country, is due to the concurrence of three main causes.

We have today a hybrid of two forms of banking — loan banking (non-inflationary) and deposit banking (inflationary if not 100% reserve holdings).  The cause of booms is the credit expansion by central banks that is not backed by pools of private savings.

As new money is created by the banking system, it enters the price system as the recipients spend it.

Whenever economic activity stagnates or declines, they quickly lower their interest rates and expand their credits.