Global Economy

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

At best, the G7 currency intervention will postpone the inevitable adjustment of world currencies to a change in demand for yen. At worst, the Bank of Japan can enforce a permanent depreciation through money creation, which will redistribute wealth.

Like many economic events, the key lies not in what is immediately apparent — explosively large banks — but in those causes and conditions that are veiled. Politicians, pundits, and the population of the Icelandic nation have had a difficult time explaining how such a large financial sector could develop in the first place.

Government planners developed a particular aesthetic obsession: they were frustrated by the untidy complexity of real human societies.

Gold is the universal language and has been for eons.

Irish dirt is an actual product that people can and do buy.

In fact, it is pretty clear that there is no such thing as homemade ice cream, and that we use the phrase only in the most metaphorical sense. Thank goodness. The store is just the last stop in a huge and extended process that emerged over centuries and requires the involvement of people all over the world.

The world had never seen government paper money until the colonial government of Massachusetts, 1690.

Try to find someone in present-day Vienna who is familiar with the exceptional work of the former finance minister of the Austrian monarchy.

It was a modern thriving economy one day, and then, suddenly, the food disappeared from the shelves, the banks closed, and the ships stopped arriving. Iceland in 2008 experienced an unprecedented economic meltdown that struck fear in the hearts...