Rulers found out early on that they could debase gold and silver coins for their own gain. As a consequence, the money supply increased, whereas money’s purchasing power fell. This pseudoalchemy is the true definition of inflation and has been a policy for more than a thousand years. What’s more, an increase in the money supply leads to rising prices. This symptom of inflation is often mistaken as inflation itself. The correct term, though, is price inflation....
Read More »As Interest Rates Rise, the Era of “Deficits Don’t Matter” Is Over
Back in 2002, then-Vice President Dick Cheney claimed "Reagan proved deficits don't matter" and went on to push for tax cuts combined with more federal spending. Indeed, the Bush administration would go on to push immense amounts of new spending, supporting a huge Medicare expansion and blowing hundreds of millions of dollars on costly and pointless occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The national debt grew by 70 percent during Bush's eight years, but no one in...
Read More »Overcoming Government Intervention in the Economy
Once again, the economic system is trying to adjust to political and monetary interventions. The year 2023 marks the end of a historical period characterized by zero-cost credit. The monetary expansion that began in the early 2000s led to the great financial crisis of 2008 and the emerging markets boom. Exaggerated demand expectations and easy access to capital caused an overexpansion of production capacity and the subsequent industrial restructuring between 2015 and...
Read More »Rothbard’s Button Doesn’t Exist, but It Needs to Be Invented
In 1948, Ludwig Erhardt rescued a German economy that was in shambles simply by invoking free markets and currency reform. Our economy needs its Rothbard moment. Original Article: "Rothbard’s Button Doesn’t Exist, but It Needs to Be Invented" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Fear-Mongering Over the Debt Ceiling
Heritage Fellow Peter St. Onge joins Bob to set the record straight on several popular talking points about the debt ceiling. Bob on selling Gov't resources to reduce the National Debt: Mises.org/HAP397a [embedded content] [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »An Austrian Perspective vs the Financial Mainstream
This episode of Good Money with Tho Bishop features guest Ryan Griggs of Griggs Capital Strategies. During the show, Ryan discusses his work with Bob Murphy on an Austrian understanding of inverted yield curves as a signal for recessions and how it differs from the mainstream analysis. He also discusses Nelson Nash's infinite banking strategy as a means for capital accumulation, in contrast to traditional investment approaches. Ryan and Bob Murphy on the Austrian...
Read More »Don’t Get on the Nationalist Bus
America and the Art of the Possible: Restoring National Vitality in an Age of Decayby Christopher BuskirkEncounter Books, 2023; xxv + 162 pp. Christopher Buskirk is the publisher and editor of the magazine American Greatness, and the title of that magazine, like that of the book, shows his principal concern. How can the American people regain the sense of optimism and purpose which we once had but have now lost? Buskirk says that in the public sphere, civilizational...
Read More »Is There an Optimum Growth Rate of Money?
Monetarists believe there is an optimum growth rate of money. However, a fiat money system itself is unstable, so there is no optimum growth rate. Original Article: "Is There an Optimum Growth Rate of Money?" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Boston Brahmins, WASPs, and Nazis: The Pursuit of Eugenics
During the progressive era, academia hastily adopted the inhumane pseudoscience of eugenics, and its results on the world were devastating. The influence of the Boston Brahmins in New England can explain the fervent adoption of this malignant belief. This elite and well-educated class of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants reeked of pomp and snobbery. The origin of the term “Boston Brahmin” came from Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. in his 1861 novel Elsie Venner. He chose the...
Read More »Socialism, Minority Groups, and Personal Liberties
People from socially and economically marginized groups in the USA tend to support socialism. Yet socialists have a long and bloody history of suppressing these very groups. Original Article: "Socialism, Minority Groups, and Personal Liberties" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
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