The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar

100 Percent Gold Banking

Murray N. Rothbard

The cardinal difference between Rothbard and most other gold advocates. He rejects the Chicago School’s view of 100 percent reserves as a convenient tool for managing the money supply, grounding his case instead in property rights: notes and deposits are warehouse receipts, and issuing more than the goods on hand is legalized counterfeiting. He answers Spahr’s bridge analogy and weighs the attractions of free banking.