Historically, many different goods have been used as money. On this, Ludwig von Mises observed that, over time,

The “transitory” inflation swamping the country has stubbornly persisted into July.  Producer prices posted a second straight 1 percent month-over-month increase, which brought the full-year number to a record 7.8 percent. Twelve-month US export prices rose 17.2 percent, and nearly 22 percent if the rate of the first seven months of 2021 were annualized.

Curt Carlson, the world’s leading authority on innovation and how to implement it, worries that the US is under-performing on this front – badly. 

On LinkedIn, he writes:

Economy, Society, and History
by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Mises Institute, 2021
191 pp.

In 2004, Hans Hoppe delivered a series of lectures at the Mises Institute about his theory of social evolution, and we are fortunate to have this volume, based on a transcript of those lectures, now available. As one would expect, the book contains much of interest, and in what follows I shall comment on only a few of the topics that this gifted and erudite scholar discusses.

Chaining Down Leviathan: The American Dream of Self-Government, 1776–1865
by Luigi Marco Bassani
Abbeville Institute Press, 2021
356 pp.

Live at the 2021 Virtual Jackson Hole symposium, Federal Chair Jerome Powell addressed the public. Beginning with a nod to COVID and appreciation for front line workers, he quickly moved to an analysis of the economy:

Booming demand for goods and the strength and speed of the reopening have led to shortages and bottlenecks, leaving the COVID-constrained supply side unable to keep up.