Monetary Policy

Video Message 4: Monetary Policy

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 22, 2008

Why Not Abolish the Fed?

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 4, 2008

One of the positions of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul that mainstream pundits find “wacky” is his call to abolish the Federal Reserve System. Never mind that two Nobel Prize-winning economists — both libertarians — called for the same thing. And never mind that the Fed is the entity directly ...

Government-Made Crises

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 17, 2008

A fascinating aspect of government intervention is how it induces people (1) to get embroiled in the crisis environment that the intervention produces, and (2) to feel a vested interest in coming up with a solution to the crisis. Consider price controls, an intervention that governments traditionally turn to in response to their own debasement of the currency. As prices ...

Political Stimulus

by Sheldon Richman January 30, 2008

Not understanding basic economics is dangerous because you’re vulnerable to political con games foisted by unscrupulous politicians. Economics properly conceived is just common sense about human activity. An examination of the proposed economic stimulus will make this clear. Nearly all politicians claim that the economy needs a stimulus that only they ...

Brace Yourselves

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 28, 2008

Make no mistake about it: the central economic problem facing the United States is out-of-control federal spending and the massive federal debt that continues to pile up. As welfare-state spending and warfare-state spending have continued to soar for the past seven years, U.S. officials have gone on a massive ...

A Short Numismatic History of the United States

by Edward B. Elmer M.D. January 1, 2008

Governments are inveterate despoilers of the freedom, wealth, and lives of their citizens. As consolation, the citizens usually receive little more than lofty words and pretentious sentiments from the political leaders in charge of the looting, murder, and enslavement. Less commonly, governments produce something concrete, such as a marble palace for the ruler or an ...

Crushed by the Fed

by Glenn Jacobs January 1, 2008

During a roundtable debate on a major cable-news outlet about how the Federal Reserve should handle the current credit crunch, one of the economic “experts” made a startling statement. He said, “The Fed has two jobs: to control inflation and to run the economy.” That such a statement is considered conventional wisdom is a stark ...

The Soviet-Style Attack on NORFED

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 21, 2007

It would be difficult to find a better example of federal heavy-handedness than the recent six-hour federal raid on NORFED, the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code. In fact, it would be virtually impossible to distinguish the NORFED raid from similar raids ...

Inflation Is Legalized Robbery, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger January 1, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 Whether one believes in the “price stability” policies of our nation’s central bank, or believes such policies have caused countless economic problems, the onus is on the Federal Reserve. It is a strange, quasi-secret public/private agency with little or no accountability.

Inflation Is Legalized Robbery, Part 1

by Gregory Bresiger December 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 Inflation. It’s the biggest problem in the world. — Paul Cabot, legendary money manager quoted in The Money Masters, by John Train. A dangerous specter once again haunts our economy, our pocketbooks, and the value of almost ...

The Federal War on Gold, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 It is impossible to overstate the significance of the Franklin Roosevelt administration’s confiscation of gold and its nullification of gold clauses in contracts. It is one of the most sordid episodes in American history. To get an accurate sense of Roosevelt’s actions, it would not be inappropriate to compare what ...

The Federal War on Gold, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt revolutionized the monetary system of the United States and set the nation on the road of inflationary plunder that has characterized other nations in history. The actions of these two presidents also provide a textbook example for understanding the animosity and antipathy that ...