Whenever the government causes a mess, chances are high that it will accuse speculators of being responsible.1 In the recent financial crisis, speculators and their financial instruments have been under attack again. Some famous investors have even supported governments’ attacks on speculators.
[This talk was first given at the SIX Swiss Exchange Bond Event, 2010.]
Henry Ford is alleged to have said that “it is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Austrian economics is superior to Marxism in every respect, and this includes internal, sectarian squabbles. When we Austrians feel the time is ripe for another bloodletting — it keeps us strong by thinning the herd once in a while — we argue over fractional-reserve banking.
Whoever the president, whatever the party in power, Moynihan managed to land on his feet — and on top.
One would think that being on the inside of many decades of careening one step ahead of monetary chaos might induce a sober, even cynical, spirit — that it might lead the insider to call for keeping one’s metaphorical air-raid shelter well stocked and at the ready.
[From Inquiry (1977); reprinted in Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy (1995).]
