As the world financial system entered a state of collapse, commentators said that Russia had traded the shortages of socialism for the bank runs and financial panics of capitalism. In fact, modern finance and banking are built on unstable, socialistic foundations.
Clinton and friends propose a global lending facility as a prelude to endless bailouts.
Financial instability and anti-capitalist fallacies about booms and busts.
When I received this book, I turned first to the contribution of Murray N. Rothbard, "The Gold Exchange Standard in the Interwar Years."
Winter's economic crisis in Asia was blamed on "go-go capitalism" and "crony capitalism," but those explanations don't get to the root cause. The Asian meltdown stems from structural defects deep within the world monetary system itself. These are defects that no amount of bailouts, exchange controls, IMF power, or even U.S. monetary discipline can repair.
My Latin professor once taught me the golden rule of Roman emperors, Vulgus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. It means the masses want to be cheated, so let's cheat them. Machiavelli built his theory of government partially on this credo.
The Federal Reserve is the most powerful yet least questioned of all Washington institutions. It can make or break elections, bail out entire governments, send the stock market to the stratosphere, or bankrupt whole industries. Yet it operates with less oversight than the CIA.
People made fun of Gerald Ford's buttons that said "WIN," meaning "Whip Inflation Now." The buttons and the accompanying propaganda campaign implied that consumers' bad vibes were the cause of inflation. Ha, Ha.
