All Posts Tagged With: "purchasing power"
Deflation: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
During the current recession a number of commentators have made various comparisons to the Great Depression, mostly because of the dramatic decline in the stock market and ongoing troubles in the financial industry. When oil prices also began a dramatic decline in the autumn of 2008, pulling the overall consumer price level downward for the [...]
5Jan2010 | Steven Horwitz | 59 comments | ContinuedThe Great French Inflation
Governments have an insatiable appetite for the wealth of their subjects. When governments find it impossible to continue raising taxes or borrowing funds, they have invariably turned to printing paper money to finance their growing expenditures. The resulting inflations have often undermined the social fabric, ruined the economy, and sometimes brought revolution and tyranny in [...]
1Jul2007 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedEnergy Policy: Wisdom or Waste?
Roger McKinney (rdmckinney@cox.net) is senior analyst for a quasigovernmental health-care agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We can’t help ourselves. Americans crave the black gold that pulses through the concrete arteries of our nation’s transportation system. In the opinion of many, we have hocked our future for a cheap fix with a drug that abandons our nation [...]
1May2007 | Roger McKinney | 5 comments | ContinuedHow’s the Third World Doing?
The Third World is in trouble. Standards of living are plummeting, while the West is getting richer. Nearly everyone seems to believe it. The left wants to believe it as a justification for global socialism. Racists want to believe it because it “proves” the superiority of the white race. The media think it’s a good [...]
1Sep2002 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Dreaded D Word
Deflation is a much-feared economic phenomenon, perhaps because it is most often associated with the Great Depression of the 1930s or with the recent troubles in Japan. and yet deflation has not always been coincident with periods of depression. The general record of the nineteenth century, in sharp contrast to that of the twentieth, was [...]
1May2002 | Christopher Mayer | 1 comment | ContinuedMarket Money and Free Banking
“If we want to have money, it must be something that cannot be increased with a profit by anybody, whether government or a citizen. The worst failures of money, the worst things done to money were not done by criminals but by governments, which very often ought to be considered, by and large, as ignoramuses [...]
1Oct1999 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 2 comments | ContinuedMoney: The Great Gold Robbery
The New Deal established much of the moral framework of contemporary political life. Though some of the programs and policies of that era have been terminated, the moral heritage of the New Deal continues to permeate American government and political thinking. In 1936 Franklin Roosevelt declared, “I should like to have it said of my [...]
1Jun1999 | James Bovard | 1 comment | ContinuedSizing Up Downsizing
Christopher Lee is associate professor of economics at St. Ambrose University, College of Business, Davenport, Iowa. Critics of voluntary cooperation through free markets typically describe one aspect of its wealth-creating dynamic as “downsizing.” They allege that such adjustments are, on balance, harmful. The news media, as well as explicit market opponents, use “downsizing” to describe [...]
1Oct1998 | Christopher Lee | 1 comment | ContinuedA Golden Comeback, Part II
“Gold maintains its purchasing power over long periods of time, for example, half-century intervals.” —Roy Jastram, The Golden Constant[1] In last month’s column, I focused on gold’s inherent stability as a monetary numeraire. Historically, the monetary base under gold has neither declined nor increased too rapidly. In short, it has operated very closely to a [...]
1Oct1998 | Mark Skousen | 0 comments | ContinuedA Golden Comeback, Part I
“A more timeless measure is needed; gold fits the bill perfectly.” —Mark Mobius When speaking of the Midas metal, I’m reminded of Mark Twain’s refrain, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” After years of central-bank selling and a bear market in precious metals, the Financial Times recently declared the “Death of Gold.” But [...]
1Sep1998 | Mark Skousen | 0 comments | ContinuedWhich Is the Best Inflation Indicator: Gold, Oil, or the Commodity Spot Index?
This column developed out of a running debate I’ve had with the editors of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. In the financial news, the Times highlights the price of oil as the best indicator of commodity prices and inflationary expectations. The front page of the Wall Street Journal publishes nine prices and indices, including oil and the Dow Jones Commodity Spot Index, to reflect activity in the financial markets.
1Feb1997 | Mark Skousen | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Wages Rise: 7. Contracting For Progress
Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education. Money, the lubricant for exchange, was discussed in the previous article in this series. Money makes widespread trade possible. Without it our present high level of wages could hardly have come to be. Yet, serious inflation and deflation can cause [...]
1Sep1956 | F. A. Harper | 0 comments | Continued-
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