While (re-)reading one of the chapters of Mises’s Theory of Money and Credit, I noted my underlining of the very clearly formulated definitions on page 240. Mises defines inflation as:

an increase in the quantity of money (in the broader sense of the term, so as to include fiduciary media as well), that is not offset by a corresponding increase in the need for money (again in the broader sense of the term), so that a fall in the objective exchange-value of money must occur.

There was a time when people understood justice far better than we do today. Aristotle’s definition was “Justice is to give every man his own.” Cicero’s was almost identical. America’s Declaration of Independence reflected that tradition in asserting inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

No, you didn’t hear them actually say it. In fact, Bernanke says quite clearly “no” – gold is not money. But their actions speak much louder than words. The Financial Times reports that central bank gold buying is at a 40-year high.

Anyone who has spent much time around small children probably recognizes that they are fundamentally Keynesians at heart–or if they aren’t full-on Keynesians, it’s pretty clear that they reject Bastiat, or haven’t yet read him. I’ve noticed that my kids do all they can to encourage full employment within the household: every day brings new adventures in stepping on things with sharp corners, in mysterious puddles of questionable content and origin, or on misplaced foodstuffs.

The new issue of Studies in Emergent Order is a special issue on Emily Chamlee-Wright’s excellent book The Cultural and Political Economy of Recovery. I reviewed Professor Chamlee-Wright’s book for Public Choice here. My contribution to the symposium began as a student’s paper for my Economic History course at Rhodes.

The super state of the European Union is reacting to information potentially undermining their political agenda in the expected way: prohibition, repression, and censorship. The latest move to “save” the economy is not to get the finances under order, as any individual or market organization would have (been forced) to. No, to government the solution is to sweep the problems under the carpet – to pretend they aren’t there. And, of course, to shoot the messenger. Long before he arrives with the bad news.

Last week, I put forth a couple of questions on airline pricing and got a lot of great comments in response. As I mentioned, the post was inspired by a few things I’ve seen on the blog that accompanies Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen’s textbook. David Youngberg offers links.

Here is a link to an interview of James Grant and James Rickards on the return to the gold standard.

I love the response line to the bogey about returning to the gold standard is going backwards. Rickards responds that if you are headed in the direction of going over a cliff, than going backwards is a good thing.

ht: JRH

Krugman thinks Misesians suffer delusions. To prove his point, he retells a fantasy as reality. Hmmm. And here I thought the story of the baby sitting co-op was an allegory of the horrors of the state intervening in the market — the state fixing the value of its fiat currency against other goods and services.