The Fed

Austrian economists have long recognized that the economy is far more complex than simple models capture.

An increase in the quantity of money doesn't bring any general improvement of conditions.

The erratic volatility of gold and other commodities is the direct result of further intervention into the market through central banking.

The perception that something is fundamentally wrong in Western societies explains why Hessel has sold millions of copies of his brief and provocative pamphlet.

Why does the behavior of the Greek government have anything to do with taxpayers in Germany? Why did the original Maastricht Treaty have rules about fiscal policy as part of the criteria for monetary union? The answer is that the euro is a fiat currency.

Just as the interventions of the Hoover administration in the early 1930s led to a massive increase in government under the New Deal and the abandonment of the gold standard, so too have the "stimulus" packages gotten us to the point where raw money printing is a policy option.

Robert Lucas misses two important reasons why government/Keynesian stimulus schemes fail miserably.

If pushing down the short-term interest rate doesn't seem to be fixing the economy, let's push down long-term rates and see what happens. Shucks, we might as well try! It would be a shame to not use this shiny printing press.