The Federal Reserve creates and manipulates the dominant fiat currency of the world. It produces the inflation of its supply and the continuous depreciation of its purchasing power. It manipulates dollar interest rates and the cost of debt, makes elastic the availability of credit (especially during financial crises), finances the government, and monetizes federal deficits in amounts limited only by the statutory debt ceiling. It is often imagined to be “managing the economy,” although, in fact, no one can successfully do that.

[This article appeared in the Letters section of The Wall Street Journal in a shortened form.]

On September 22, members of the Canadian Parliament provided a standing ovation for Yaroslav Hunka, a member of Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS during World War II. 

The event surrounded a visit to Ottawa by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. In their hysterical rush to praise all things anti-Russian in 2023, some of our social democratic elites in the West have taken to praising literal Third-Reich Nazis. Specifically, the Speaker of the House of Commons described Hunka as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.”

A central bank is not a natural product of banking development. It is imposed from the outside or comes into being as a result of government favors.

—Vera Smith, The Rationale of Central Banking and the Free Banking Alternative

Anarchy, the absence of coercive government, must not be confused with chaos.

What contributes to the wealth of a nation? Gross national income (GNI) and gross domestic product (GDP) are two well-known measures of a country’s economic growth. One measures the earnings of a country, and the other measures the value of the final goods produced by the country. What drives these measures in the twenty-first century? We are now witnessing a pivotal technological divide among countries in their ability to invest in and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in the means of production—a divide that is creating AI haves and have-nots.

For many economists, economic growth is a mystery. By “economic growth,” Shawn Ritenour has principally in mind economic progress in the less developed countries, but his recipe for growth applies universally. Why is growth a mystery? Ritenour explains why in this excellent book: “Indeed, a major reason modern macroeconomics has not solved the mystery is that as a whole—dare I say, in the aggregate—its analytical approach fosters neither asking nor answering the correct questions.”

Sohrab Ahmari has written a passionate indictment of the free market. The core of his indictment is expressed in one of the book’s epigraphs. It is from the Vulgate, and in translation reads: “Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4, NAB).

The Austrian (TA): At mises.org, we’ve focused a lot on how monetary policy can increase inequality and impoverishment. But the same could be said of many other non-central-bank interventions in the economy. What are some of these interventions that are making us worse off?