Money and Banking

Mises demonstrated, as early as 1912, that no good can become a medium of exchange, much less a money, unless it has a previous non-monetary usefulness on the market. In short, money can only emerge as a commodity on the market, and cannot be imposed by the government, by social contract, or by various schemes of economists or other observers. Such plans have elsewhere been labeled correctly by Hayek himself as "constructivist." In short, media of exchange and therefore money can only arise "organically" out of market processes and cannot be imposed by outside schemers.

September 1986 is an historic month in the history of United States monetary policy. For it is the first month in over fifty years—thanks to the heroic leadership of Ron Paul during his four terms in Congress—that the United States Treasury has minted a genuine gold coin. 

In the last few months, the Reagan administration seems to have achieved the culmination of its "economic miracle" of the last several years: while the money supply has skyrocketed upward in double digits, the consumer price index has remained virtually flat. Money cheap and abundant, stock and bond markets booming, and yet prices remaining stable: what could be better than that? Has the President, by inducing Americans to feel good and stand tall, really managed to repeal economic law? Has soft soap been able to erase the need for "root-canal" economics?

When will we realize that only a genuine gold standard can bring us the virtues of both systems and a great deal more: free markets, absence of inflation, and exchange rates that are fixed not arbitrarily by government but as units of weights of a precious market commodity, gold?

The Ludwig von Mises Institute's premier conference was held in Washington, D.C., on November 16–17, 1983. "The Gold Standard: An Austrian Perspective" was the first event of its kind. Not only was it the first academic conference ever held in the United States on the gold standard, but it took place on Capitol Hill. 

From a practical point of view, the supply of money is very different from the supply of any other good. An increase in other goods, like shoes or meat, is a welcome event, but an increase in the supply of money dilutes the purchasing power of each money unit.

Human cooperation means that everybody tries to contribute to the improvement of human conditions. It is in the market that I give something in order that you give something. Exchange leads to higher standards of living. Voluntary exchanges create civilization.

Mises University is the world’s leading instructional program in the Austrian school of economics.

Mises University is the world’s leading instructional program in the Austrian school of economics.

Tom DiLorenzo, Joe Salerno, and Patrick Newman uncover the state’s deceit to reveal what inflation really is: deliberate debasement of the dollar t