The Fed

The federal government is digging itself deeper and deeper into debt at an alarming rate.

Lord Keynes was constantly worried that people were saving too much and consuming too little — thus the need for more and cheaper money to stimulate the economy. Mr. Bernanke is nothing if not a good Keynesian, and his low rates make even the savviest question whether to forgo consumption.

No one will suspect John Adams of demagogy, but he was quick to denounce any issue of private bank notes as a fraud upon the public.

The only reason this nonsense is sustainable is due to the promise of the Federal Reserve to back all this spending with money creation.

The fake version of history says that without a central bank or its lesser cousin, a national bank, we had nothing but boom, bust, and sorrow — but since the creation of the Federal Reserve System, it's been nothing but sunshine and lollipops. Let us take a look.

A Fed employee argues that inflation is harmless. I argue that it is a rip-off for everyone who uses dollars.

Five months into the second round of quantitative easing — "QE2" — it is useful to take stock of what it has, and has not, accomplished. QE2 has begun to deliver on all the dangers of which the critics warned, but not the alleged benefits.

It is a great pleasure for me to present this book by my colleague Philipp Bagus.