Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Reality Trumps Federal Reserve Rhetoric

An excerpt from my chapter, "The Fed: Reality Trumps Rhetoric" appears today as a daily article at Mises.org. I was honored to be asked to contribute the chapter to a new book, The Fed at One Hundred that provides a critical assessment of our nation's central money making machine. Edited by David Howden and Joseph T. Salerno, the book is an excellent work providing a scholarly evaluation of the Federal Reserve. In my chapter I explore main themes in the rhetoric used by Fed officials, drawing upon speeches from Federal Reserve Chairmen and official Fed publications since its inception. I then hold this rhetoric up to the light of the monetary and economic history of the United States and show that despite claims to be the savior of the global economy,
The history of the Fed has been one of monetary inflation, higher overall prices, diminished purchasing power, economic depressions, and lost decades. In 1913 the state sowed the inflationist wind and for a hundred years we have been reaping the economic whirlwind.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Salerno on Rothbard's THE MYSTERY OF BANKING

Here is Joseph Salerno's nice introduction of Murray Rothbard's The Mystery of Banking.



I concur that The Mystery of Banking is an excellent introduction to monetary theory, how fractional reserve banking affects the quantity of money and its purchasing power, and the monetary history of the United States. In fact, if you come to Grove City College to study economics, you will use it as the main text in our Money and Banking course.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Ritenour on Holcombe's ADVANCED INTRODUCTION TO AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS

My review of Randall Holcombe's new Advanced Introduction to Austrian Economics has just been published by Libertarian Papers. Holcombe's concise work makes for an excellent way to introduce any friends (or enemies for that matter) who are schooled in the neoclassical economic framework to the more rich, realistic, and therefore relevant economic analysis in the Austrian tradition.