Inflation

For more than a century, the Federal Reserve has slowly but surely destroyed this nation‘s once-sound monetary system. As inflation once again undermines our economy, the Fed reacts by making things even worse.

Mainstream economics tells us that we need a growing money supply to keep an economy growing. But what if a growing money supply diminishes economic growth? The Austrians have something to tell us about money growth.

The piggy bank originated about 500 years ago at the dawn of capitalism, when ordinary people started to possess silver coins. This 500-year tradition seems to be yet another “minor” detail of life that has been killed by a world dominated by fiat paper money.

Perhaps John Maynard Keynes' best con job was convincing people that a growing economy needs inflation, lots of inflation. As David Gordon points out, however, Ludwig von Mises eloquently explained why inflation undermines the free market economy.

Beef prices are rising again because of government intervention in the monetary system and in regulation of the beef industry. As American beef consumption falls, the entire industry is in trouble.

Modern Monetary Theory is a perfect example of, “Do as I say, not as you do,” rather than, “Do as I say, not as I do.” MMT rightly points out some hypocrisy, but wants to replace it with more hypocrisy.

Hans Hoppe recently criticized Argentina‘s President Javier Milei for not closing the country‘s inflationary central bank. In response, Milei claimed that doing so would result in hyperinflation. Given the central bank prints lots of pesos, shutting it obviously would decrease inflation.

One of the fallacies pushed by monetary economists is that a growing economy needs a growing supply of money in order to prevent deflation, which they claim is as harmful as inflation. However, as Austrians point out, there is no “optimum” amount of money in the economy, since prices adjust.

President-elect Donald Trump has declared that he will raise tariffs his first day in office. Our economy, however, does not need government-created roadblocks to trade. Instead, we need free exchange and sound money.

The child-like obsession with buying stuff that American society is often criticized for around Christmas is a sought-after result of our government’s monetary policy.