Jeff Deist and Claudio Grass discuss the uniquely Swiss mindset behind the upcoming Swiss gold referendum, and how decentralization of political power is part of Swiss DNA; the tremendous geopolitical aftershocks that would occur if the referendum passes — including the physical repatriation of gold to Switzerland; and how the Swiss people may be
If you examine the attached graph one factor that might jump out at you is that the current “recovery” has been the worst one since WWII in terms of the percentage job losses and the time necessary for a full recovery in the job market making it, already, the most expensive since WWII. Another less clear, but equally valid observation is that the
Volume 5, No. 1 (Spring 2002) George Selgin and Lawrence White have sought to tie their modern free banking school to the views of Ludwig von Mises . Whatever the validity of their own views on the gold standard and fractional-reserve free banking, their assessments of Mises’s positions on these issues are dubious. Mises felt
Volume 6, No. 4 (Winter 2003) It seems odd that economists would find the idea of falling prices to be a bad thing. Likewise, it is peculiar that policymakers would fear deflation and be willing to take drastic measures to insure the so-called “defeat” of deflation. Policymakers and politicians, after all, would supposedly want the general
The Free Market 32, no. 7 (July 2014) According to mainstream economics textbooks, one of the primary functions of money is to measure the value of goods and services exchanged on the market. A typical statement of this view is given by Frederic Mishkin in his textbook on money and banking. “[M]oney ... is used to measure value in the economy,” he
The Daily Bell skewers the Swiss banking class for its hostility to the upcoming gold referendum, a referendum which banking interests almost certainly will find a way to defeat. Still, a s the article points out, central bankers are now on the defensive. They’re forced to explain why the SNB should not hold gold- which to the average Swiss
The Swiss gold initiative has come and gone. It can be summarized as much ado about nothing. Even if it had passed, the initiative would have had no real impact on the central bank’s ability to print money or conduct monetary policy. The central bank is currently defending a 1.2 Swiss-francs-to-the-euro floor. By pegging its currency, the Swiss
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.