Free Markets

"There is much more certainty in a decentralized legal system than in a centralized, legislation-based system."

State-issued money, as the "critical command post," serves to subtly reinforce the authority of the state, insidiously plunder the savings and purchasing power of its subjects, and massively manipulate the economy.

Private providers of orphan transfer can be expected to treat orphans with deeper respect than governments can be expected to; in a free market, in fact, they will have no other option.

"And it is here — let's pinpoint the exact date at Greenspan's 'irrational-exuberance' call in December 1996 — where the Austrian men separate themselves from the Keynesian and Friedmanite boys."

But if a little time is spent on this formula of the five costs of production, it is simple to establish that there is no such thing as "surplus value," and that the "labor theory of value" is an oversimplification.

Finally, the most interesting aspect of the giant credit-card industry is the simple fact that it works.

"The more these readjustments are delayed," Rothbard explained, "the longer the depression will have to last, and the longer complete recovery is postponed."

Garet Garrett spoke boldly and consistently against "the dim-out of the individual" represented by the political centralization and bureaucratization of American life under FDR.

Not all reforms are improvements. As we have seen, the 100-percent-reserve solution is ripe with unintended consequences.