In a November 1, 2010, blog post titled “Could the World Go Back to the Gold Standard?,” Martin Wolf, the Financial Times chief economics commentator, comes to the conclusion that “we cannot and will not go back to the gold standard.” Among a number of mainstream-economics arguments leveled against the desirability and feasibility of the gold
[ Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable • By Mark Gilbert • Bloomberg Press, 2010 • 192 pages] “Sanity remained in short supply.” – Mark Gilbert, Complicit Complicit , by Mark Gilbert, the London bureau chief for Bloomberg financial news, is unusual — a book concerning our recently demised speculative boom that you
At the Mises Academy we are just wrapping up the inaugural class , on the Austrian theory of the business cycle. During the class, one issue that came up repeatedly was whether the Mises/Hayek story of the trade cycle could occur on a completely free market, using gold as money and a banking system that operated on 100 percent reserves. As any
In the last week there have been several interesting developments involving gold. The price of the yellow metal set a new record, breaking through the $1,300 barrier. Meanwhile, a German firm is preparing to install gold vending machines in the United States. The German firm won’t be stocking the machines with gold purchased from European central
World Bank president Robert Zoellick has stirred up a hornet’s nest with his recent call for a return to a gold anchor in the global financial system. The usual suspects immediately denounced him, with Keynesian Brad DeLong anointing Zoellick the “ Stupidest Man Alive .” In the present article I’ll explain the resurging interest in the yellow
[Excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought , vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith . An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download .] Sir Thomas Smith (1513–1577) The honor — if that be the proper term — of being the first English mercantilist writer should have gone, for
[Excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought , vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith . An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download .] The “Bullionist” Attack on Foreign Exchange and on the East India Trade Having survived the assaults of ignorant moralists before the
The current crisis has economists, from mainstream defenders of central banking, such as Alan Blinder, to the leading interpreter of Austrian business-cycle theory, Roger Garrison, calling for a reexamination of the role of central banks and money in the economy. Blinder states, “The nature and scope of the Federal Reserve’s authority and the
In his interview with the CNBC on November 9, 2010, a highly regarded Wall Street economist, Nouriel Roubini, the cofounder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, said that a gold standard is unlikely to stabilize the financial system. On the contrary, holds Roubini, such a standard can only make things much worse. For instance, argues Roubini,
This is the tale of two economists who lived parallel lives, and then pursued two different and contrary goals. One was devoted to liberty and one was devoted to the state. The first remained a teacher during his entire life, never in any prestigious institution and never exercising any power. Indeed, he used his post teaching against the exercise
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.