The main reason why the ECB quantitative easing program has failed is that it started from a wrong diagnosis of the eurozone’s problem. That the European problem was a demand and liquidity issue, not due to years of excess.

The ECB had been receiving tremendous pressure from banks and governments to implement a similar program to the US’ quantitative easing, forgetting that the eurozone had been under a chain of government stimuli since 2009 and that the problem of the euro-zone was not liquidity, but an interventionist model.

There are three money supply statistics that every citizen should understand. They are the monetary base, M1, and M2.

Some commentators are of the view that when the velocity of money rises, all other thing being equal, the buying power of money declines, (i.e., the prices of goods and services rise). The opposite occurs when velocity declines.

If, for example, it was found that the quantity of money had increased by 10% in a given year, while the price level as measured by the consumer price index has remained unchanged it would mean that there must have been a slowing down of about 10% in the velocity of circulation.

ABSTRACT: Given the importance of the School of Salamanca, economists of the Austrian School occupy a privileged position with regard to the study of literature. Specifically, they are well suited to understand a foundational text in the modern history of the novel form. Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605/1615) by Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) is steeped in the thinking of the School of Salamanca, especially that of the great late scholastic Juan de Mariana (1536–1624).

ABSTRACT: This is a brief biographical sketch of the heroic late-scholastic thinker Juan de Mariana, with particular attention to his epic confrontation with Philip III and the Duke of Lerma, including a review of the list of charges against him. Around 1600, Mariana produced a series of powerful criticisms of statist monetary policy. From a broad perspective, the Jesuit’s attitude anticipates classical liberal and libertarian opposition to the shenanigans of central bankers (cf. Jefferson, Rothbard, Huerta de Soto, etc.).

Polls in recent years suggest that young people are growing more enamored of socialism. But, they’re not embracing the socialism of Lenin or Mao. Instead, like many other Americans, they are attracted to what seems to be a kinder, gentler version of socialism: social democracy.

ABSTRACT: In his recent book, Money, Interest and the Structure of Production (Machaj, 2017), Mateusz Machaj advances two significant criticisms of Mises’s theory of time preference and his pure time preference theory of interest (PTPT).

The Atlantic’s take is that Mainstream economics has many problems, as others have noted. They think that college students should be exposed to some behavioral economics in their economics classes. Their conclusion is thus:

After over three years of following the disastrous effects of socialism unfolding in Venezuela I can confidently say that 99% of the articles I’ve read on the issue will sooner or later point out that Venezuela’s crisis is not only surprisingly dire, but rather counterintuitive given that it is one of the most oil rich countries in the world, with probably the largest proven reserves.