Mises Daily

It says something good about the American people that they insist on acting as if we lived in a free country in which we really shouldn't have to bother with politics

We can thus conclude that it is irrelevant for the multiplier process whether the central bank targets the quantity of money or the interest rate. What matters here is that the central bank is always ready to accommodate commercial banks' expansion of credit out of thin air. Without the central bank's support the likelihood of a sustained multiplier process taking place is close to nil. Hence the notion of the money multiplier is not applicable to a truly free-market economy.

The heady mix of human credulity and overeasy money was still producing the same old, intoxicating brew in the marketplace.

They imagine themselves to be the class of rulers, the aristocrats, the philosopher kings, the high clerics, the landowners, and to keep that power, they gladly fuel the basest of human instincts: nationalism, jingoism, and hate.

His political opinions had always been unpalatable to his colleagues. Even before he encountered Hayek and the Austrians, he had the reputation of an extreme libertarian (which is not exceedingly difficult to obtain in France, the only major country in which academic economists tend to be more statist than the rest of the population).

American liberty will never be reestablished so long as elites and masses alike look to the president to perform supernatural feats and therefore tolerate his virtually unlimited exercise of power. Until we can restore limited, constitutional government in this country, God save us from great presidents.

And, perhaps, it also explains why a careful analysis of the time structure of production (not in terms of an "average" period of production) is a necessary basis for a satisfactory analysis of the trade cycle.

There is a definite connection between fiat currencies and trade deficits.

But even more damaging to the case for state-mandated preservation is the fact that the most egregious destroyers of treasures from our past have not been market actors seeking profit, but states pursuing power, engaging in wars, urban renewal projects, and eminent domain seizures of long-established and beloved neighborhoods for highways, airports, sports stadiums, and commercial developments promising higher tax revenues.

That's true enough but it sidesteps the reality that there is no economic activity that these people don't favor regulating to the nth degree. They talk of privacy and civil rights, but when it comes to commerce, they recognize no right of privacy and no individual rights. All property is up for grabs to control and meld in the name of national well-being.