Money and Banks

The implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies isn‘t just about money. It also is about personal freedom and how CBDCs give the government enormous powers over individuals.

The gold in the US gold reserve is a legacy of the time the US government refused to keep its promise to redeem dollars in gold, and when it reneged on its legal obligations to repay debts in gold.

Ryan is joined by Economist and Mises Institute Fellow  Kristoffer Hansen to discuss what would have happened if Argentina President Javier Milei had immediately shut down the country's central bank. The same holds for every other central bank, as well. 

Since the last credible audit in the 1950s, America’s gold reserves have been subject to limited, flawed, and theatrical inspections.

Is Elon Musk’s DOGE taxpayer dividend proposal inflationary, or is it simply returning savings from government spending cuts?

Much of the world‘s financial system is undergirded by the false claim that US government bonds are “risk-free.” The truth is that all is not well when it comes to banking and finance.

No macroeconomics or monetary theory course is complete without introduction of the Equation of Exchange, or MV = PQ. However, this equation explains nothing, praxeologically speaking. Instead, it clouds our understanding of how money fits into our economy. 

Ryan McMaken and economist Per Bylund discuss the nature of money in our paper-money world. Are Bitcoin and gold money? If not, how do they become money?  

The Federal Reserve‘s reckless policies have created havoc in the housing markets, with the government and monetary authorities helping to create the apartment bubble, which is in the process of bursting. As usual, bad policies bring bad people into the markets.

If President Trump is looking for a federal agency to abolish, he needs to look no further than the misnamed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.