Money and Banks

Delivered before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, February 3, 1944.

The text of a speech given by University of California at Los Angeles professor of economics Benjamin M.

Chapter 13 in The Ethics of Money Production. From Part 2, “Inflation,” pages 175-191. Narrated by Floy Lilley.

A strong central bank is the creator of, not the cure for, inflation and the business cycle.

If you follow the Austrian recipe of allowing liquidation of bankrupt firms and debt, allowing prices to fall without monetary inflation, not propping up employment or subsidizing unemployment, and not discouraging hoarding, you will end up with the quickest possible recovery and minimize the magnitude of economic pain.

The German hyperinflation was the result of a policy that considered the financing of government debt by an accelerating increase in the money stoc

Government-controlled fiat money is fraudulent money.

Robert Murphy demonstrates in this excellent book a penetrating ability to explain the essence of fallacious economic doctrines. As he notes, three theories offer competing explanations of the Great Depression

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan tried to exonerate himself from the housing boom and bust. Even though more and more analysts are realizing that Greenspan’s low interest rates fueled the bubble, the ex-maestro himself uses statistics to defend his record.

Do we already have inflation in the pipeline? I think so.