Money and Banking

Would it be possible for the boom-bust cycle to emerge in the free market economy where the central bank does not exist and where gold is money?

Loose monetary policy can appear to work so long as real wealth is expanding. But money expansion weakens wealth creation over time, eventually leading to slower growth, lost wealth, and economic busts.

Joe Weisenthal is questioning whether people should be able to deposit their money in a checking account and be paid interest on it — Rothbardians have been saying that for decades. 

The introduction of money does not alter the fact that individuals still have to produce something useful in order to secure some other useful goods for themselves.

The Keynesian obsession with avoiding deflation and pushing consumer spending has led to a serious decline in savings and capital accumulation.

The US dollar came to rule the world in the wake of two world wars. But back then, the dollar's hegemony was based on a solid foundation of savings and capital accumulation. But today, the dollar's growth is based on huge piles of debt.

If the world gets into a currency war — with the assault on wages and savings that devaluation entails — no one wins.

Given the way it's calculated, GDP can be driven up just as much by squandering wealth, as by building it up.

Bob shows why Ludwig von Mises thought any issuance of fiduciary media caused the boom-bust cycle.

In Christine Lagarde and Philip Lane, the EU has two new central bankers who will push the limits of what central banks can do.