All Posts Tagged With: "money"
A Return to Gold?
“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. . . . Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society. . . .The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the [...]
30Nov2011 | and John L. Chapman | 13 comments | ContinuedMoney Is Not Speech
“The Supreme Court said that money equals speech!” Proponents of campaign finance regulation have thrown this trope around freely since 2010’s landmark Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. Fortunately, the Court never actually made such an absurd equation. It would be hard to take the Court seriously if it had. But [...]
30Nov2011 | Michael Cummins | 2 comments | ContinuedLudwig von Mises: Economist, Philosopher, Prophet
Editor’s Note: September 29 is the 130th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig von Mises, the great Austrian economist, defender of classical liberalism, and adviser to FEE. Below is a selection of Mises’s writings published in The Freeman over the years. The Market It is customary to speak metaphorically of the automatic and anonymous forces [...]
24Aug2011 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedA Victim of the State
I feel safer with Bernard von NotHaus doing what he does than with Ben Bernanke doing what he does.
25Mar2011 | Sheldon Richman | 34 comments | ContinuedGold and Money, II
Last month we examined some propositions about gold as money, drawing from theory and history. This month we ask whether and how gold might once again serve a monetary function. Money of any sort, commodity-based or not, derives its value in large part from what economists call a “network effect.” Like a fax machine, whose [...]
23Mar2011 | Warren C. Gibson | 10 comments | ContinuedGold and Money
Nothing seems to arouse passions—pro and con—quite like suggestions that gold should once again play a role in our money. “Only gold is money,” says one side. “It’s a barbarous relic,” says the other. Let’s turn down the heat a bit and look into some propositions about gold. That should lead us to some reasonable [...]
24Feb2011 | Warren C. Gibson | 23 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Was There Money in the Original “Star Trek”? To the Editor: In the December 2004 issue of The Freeman, P. Gardner Goldsmith criticizes “Star Trek” for foolishly postulating that we could do without money. He presents us with an argument of the following structure: X is stupid; someone told him that “Star Trek” creator Gene [...]
8Jul2010 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Where Is the Dollar Defined? To the Editor: I was belatedly reading in the November 2003 issue of Ideas on Liberty when I came across something that caught my eye. This was the statement in George Leef’s book review of Pieces of Eight by Edwin Vieira, Jr., claiming that the Constitution defined a dollar as [...]
6Jul2010 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedAre Profits Fit Only for Serfs and Slaves?
In their recent book, From Poverty to Prosperity, Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz relate that ancient Romans believed it honorable to gain wealth through battle and conquest, but dishonorable to profit by engaging in commerce. Such work was considered so demeaning that it was left to the children of freed slaves. Because of the associated [...]
29Jun2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 6 comments | ContinuedGood Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775–1821
Most people suppose, without having thought much about it, that money must be provided by government. That belief comes in for a sound thrashing in University of Georgia professor George Selgin’s book Good Money, which tells the story of Britain’s experience with private coinage during the Industrial Revolution. Selgin’s research shows that the government had [...]
24Feb2010 | George C. Leef | 2 comments | ContinuedMoney Supply Watch
I’m not a trained economist. But shouldn’t this worry us? This chart tracks M1 data over the last year. M1, according to Wikipedia, is “currency in circulation + checkable deposits (checking deposits, officially called demand deposits, and other deposits that work like checking deposits) + traveler’s checks.” This is a primary measure of money supply. [...]
9Jan2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Economic Fantasy of “Star Trek”
Gardner Goldsmith (ELGGRANDE@msn.com) is an independent journalist and screenwriter in New Hampshire. A friend of mine is an award-winning science-fiction novelist. When we first met, I happened to mention to him that I was working on a science-fantasy novel, just as he was. He bristled. “I write science-fiction, not fantasy,” he said. “Those two genres [...]
1Dec2004 | P. Gardner Goldsmith | 19 comments | ContinuedAustrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom
The revival of the modern Austrian school of economics may be said to have begun 30 years ago, during the week of June 15–22, 1974, when the Institute for Humane Studies sponsored a conference on Austrian economics for about 40 participants in the small town of South Royalton, Vermont. In 1974 the Austrian school had [...]
1Jun2004 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – November 2003
Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life by James R. Otteson Cambridge University Press • 2002 • 338 pages • $70.00 hardcover; $26.00 paperback Reviewed by Robert Batemarco One of the puzzles confronting students of the history of economic thought is the apparent inconsistency of the two masterworks of Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and [...]
1Nov2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedUnderstanding Austrian Economics, Part 1
Austrian economics owes its name to the historic fact that it was founded and first elaborated by three Austrians—Carl Menger (1840–1921), Friedrich von Wieser (1851–1926), and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851–1914). The latter two built upon Menger, though Böhm-Bawerk, in particular, made important additional contributions. Menger’s great work, translated into English (but not until seventy-nine years [...]
1Oct2003 | Henry Hazlitt | 3 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – July 2003
Diversity: The Invention of a Concept by Peter Wood Encounter Books • 2003 • 308 pages • $24.95 Reviewed by George C. Leef Anthropologists study the origins and development of human customs and beliefs. Often that takes them to places like New Guinea, but anthropologist Peter Wood did not need immunizations or a passport to write this remarkable book. It examines [...]
1Jul2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Four Sources of Happiness: Is Money One of Them?
“I’m tired of Love: I’m still more tired of Rhyme. But Money gives me pleasure all the time.” -Hilaire Belloc I came across a very interesting book the other day called Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being by Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer. It’s a technical book, with lots [...]
1Aug2002 | Mark Skousen | 2 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
