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 | Antal E. Fekete - Gold University |
| Whither Gold |
| The year 1971 was a milestone in the history of money and credit. Previously, in theworld's most developed countries, money (and hence credit) was tied to a positive value:the value of a well-defined quantity of a good of well-defined quality. In 1971 this tiewas cut. Ever since, money has been tied not to positive but to negative values – the value of debt instruments.Tuesday, March 2, 2021 |
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 | George F. Smith - Barbarous Relic |
Gary North on central banking, gold, federal debt, and Keynesianism  |
| I have never met Gary North and probably never will.Yet, through his writings he has had a far-reaching influence on my thinking, especially with regard to government and economics.He runs a membership website, GaryNorth.com.For $14.95 a month you get access to everything on the site, including four daily articles that he writes six days a week and posts while most people are still asleep.Members can ask questions in the forums to which he and other members will post replies.
North wrote whatWednesday, February 17, 2021 |
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| George F. Smith - Barbarous Relic |
Thomas Paine, Liberty's Hated Torchbearer  |
| When Thomas Paine's ship pulled into Baltimore harbor on October 30, 1802, a large gathering of friends and admirers were waiting at dockside to welcome him back. Others stood by as well, some filled with loathing, merely to observe a famous figure.Saturday, February 13, 2021 |
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 | Frank Shostak |
| Why We Now Measure Gold in Dollars — and Not the Other Way Around |
| Prior to 1933, the name "dollar" was used to refer to a unit of gold that had a weight of 23.22 grains. Since there are 480 grains in one ounce, this means that the name dollar also stood for 0.048 ounce of gold. This in turn, means that one ounce of gold referred to $20.67.Observe that $20.67 is not the price of one ounce of gold in terms of dollars as popular thinking has it, for there is no such entity as a dollar. Dollar is just a name for 0.048 ounce of gold. On this Rothbard wrote,No one pWednesday, February 10, 2021 |
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 | Tom DiLorenzo |
Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850): Between the French and Marginalist Revolutions  |
| CLAUDE FREDERIC BASTIAT was a French economist, legislator, and writer who championed private property, free markets, and limited government. Perhaps the main underlying theme ofBastiat's writings was that the free market was inherently a source of "economic harmony" among individuals, as long as government was restricted to the function of protecting the lives, liberties, and property of citizens from theft or aggression.Thursday, February 4, 2021 |
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 | Robert Blumen |
| What Is Key for the Price Formation of Gold |
| Robert Blumen discusses some important but widely misunderstood elements acting on the gold price. He explains that frequently cited gold demand statistics have no relationship to the gold price. In addition, he explains that the annual gold mine production is of very little influence, as gold is hoarded, not consumed like other commodities.
Robert Blumen was born in 1964 and grWednesday, January 27, 2021 |
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 | Lew Rockwell |
 Our Enemy, the Executive State  |
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The modern
institution of the presidency is the primary political evil Americans
face, and the cause of nearly all our woes. It squanders the nationalMonday, January 25, 2021 |
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| Antal E. Fekete - Gold University |
| Economic Aspects Of The Pension Problem |
| .Friday, December 25, 2020 |
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| George F. Smith - Barbarous Relic |
| Fielding my grandson’s questions about gold and banking |
| My grandson had quite a day at school.He had learned that the economy had been suffering from things called Panics, capital P, during the 19th century and had another big one in the early 20th century.He had been told that responsible, public-spirited men like J. P. Morgan had organized a central bank to prevent those Panics.He and other bankers finally got the government to go along with their idea and pass it into law in late 1913.And wouldn’t you know it — we’ve had no more Panics since then.Thursday, December 24, 2020 |
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| Frank Shostak |
| Why Fractional-Reserve Banking Would Be Limited in an Unhampered Market |
| The so-called multiplier arises as a result of the fact that banks are legally permitted to use money that is placed in demand deposits. Banks treat this type of money as if it was loaned to them, thus loaning it out while simultaneously allowing depositors to spend that money.RELATED: "Austrians, Fractional Reserves, and the Money Multiplier" by Robert BatemarcoFor example, if John places $100 in demand deposit at Bank One he doesn't relinquish his claim over the deposited $100. He has unlimiteTuesday, December 22, 2020 |
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| Antal E. Fekete - Gold University |
| Fractional Reserve Banking Revisited |
| "Fractional reserve banking" is a misnomer as it suggests that part of the money created through the loan process is backed by nothing. In reality, the part not backed by gold reserve is fully backed by a bank asset called self-liquidating bill of exchange (bill for short). As Mises himself would admit, bills are capable of monetary circulation (as they did indeed circulate in the Manchester area that lay outside the boundaries of the monopoly of the Bank of England in the 19th century).Sunday, December 20, 2020 |
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 | Eugen Von Böhm-Bawerk - Mises.org |
| Our Passive Trade Balance |
| Editor's Note: Published in January 1914 in Neue Frei Presse,"Our Passive Trade Balance" (“Unsere passive Handelsbilanz”) would prove to be Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk's last publication before his death. Ludwig von Mises mentions the article in an essay written after Böhm-Bawerk's death, but to our knowledge, this is the first time the essay has appeared in English. Nathan Keeble located a scan of the article posted by the Austrian National Archives. Translation by Kai Weiss.]As is well known, the tSaturday, December 19, 2020 |
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| Frank Shostak |
| How Interest Rates Affect Time Preference — and Vice Versa |
| According to the writings of Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises, the driving force of interest rate determination is individual’s time preferences. What is this all about?As a rule, people assign a higher valuation to present goods versus future goods. This means that present goods are valued at a premium to future goods.This stems from the fact that a lender or an investor gives up some benefits at present. Hence, the essence of the phenomenon of interest is the cost that a lender or an investorTuesday, December 15, 2020 |
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| Lew Rockwell |
 Can Anarcho-Capitalism Work |
| The term “anarcho-capitalism” has, we might say, rather an arresting quality. But while the term itself may jolt the newcomer, the ideas it embodies are compelling and attractive, and represent the culmination of a long development of thought.
If I had to boil it down to a handful of insights, they would be these: (1) each human being, to use John Locke’s formulation, “has a property in his ownWednesday, December 9, 2020 |
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| Lew Rockwell |
| Why I Am an Anarcho-Capitalist |
| A great many people – more than ever, probably – describe themselves as supporters of the free market today, in spite of the unrelenting propaganda against it. And that’s great. Those statements of support, however, are followed by the inevitable but: but we need government to provide physical security and dispute resolution, the most critical services of all.
Almost without a thought, people who otherwise support the market want to assign to government the production of the most important goodsTuesday, November 24, 2020 |
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| Frank Shostak |
| Inflation Is Not About Price Increases |
| There is almost complete unanimity among economists and various commentators that inflation is about general increases in the prices of goods and services. From this it is established that anything that contributes to price increases sets in motion inflation.A fall in unemployment or a rise in economic activity is seen as a potential inflationary trigger. Some other triggers, such as rises in commodity prices or workers’ wages, are also regarded as potential threats.If inflation is just a generaMonday, November 16, 2020 |
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| Frank Shostak |
| There Are Two Types of Credit — One of Them Leads to Booms and Busts |
| In the slump of a cycle, businesses that were thriving begin to experience difficulties or go under. They do so not because of firm-specific entrepreneurial errors but rather in tandem with whole sectors of the economy. People who were wealthy yesterday have become poor today. Factories that were busy yesterday are shut down today, and workers are out of jobs.Businessmen themselves are confused as to why. They cannot make sense of why certain business practices that were profitable yesterday areSunday, November 1, 2020 |
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| Antal E. Fekete - Gold University |
| The New Austrian School of Economics |
| .Saturday, October 3, 2020 |
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| Antal E. Fekete - Gold University |
| The Hungarian Connection |
| Gold is the most misunderstood metal in human history, because of the economists' failure to distinguish between its dynamic and static aspects in representing values. Economists have blithely assumed all along that the value of gold is the same whether it flows freely from one hand to the next, or whether the movement of gold is obstructed, in the worst case arrested, by the government (soon to be aped by banks and individualsFriday, September 25, 2020 |
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 | Alasdair Macleod - Finance and Eco. |
| The fiat money quantity (FMQ) |
| Summary : This paper seeks to establish a measure of currency quantity that helps economists identify and estimate the risk that confidence in fiat currencies might be significantly eroded or even vanish altogether. It is this phenomenon that was referred to in the great European currency inflations of the 1920s as Katastrophenhausse, or a crack-up boom, when ordinary people lose all confidence in a fiat currency, disposing of it as rapidly as possible instead preferring ownership of goods.This isThursday, September 17, 2020 |
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