Economics
Finance
Economics
A Very Short Primer on What Causes Inflation
What almost everyone calls “inflation” is really a rise in the general price level. OK. But the real definition of “inflation” is inflation of the money supply. A rise in the general price level is [more…]
Business
Economic Idiocy Repeated, Part 2
In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass” Humpty Dumpty tells Alice: “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Humpty’s subjective approach to verbal meanings is of [more…]
Business
Economic Idiocy Repeated, Part 1
Any catalogue of economic legends would of course include the 2008 visit of Queen Elizabeth to the London School of Economics, when the country was experiencing an unprecedented housing market bubble based on the irrational [more…]
Economics
Missing the forest for the tree
Over the second half of January, we witnessed a fresh wave of volatility in equity markets, culminating in a pullback that caused widespread concern and endless headlines in the mainstream financial press. There was speculation [more…]
Economics
Eliminating Legal Tender Laws: A First Step to Sound Money and Financial Truth
Mention the term “legal tender” in polite company and most people will resemble a deer in the headlights. In simple terms legal tender laws grant monopoly status to money, usually fiat, produced by government; i.e., [more…]
Economics
Why governments practise currency debasement – and how to cure them
I have written on the subject of currency debasement many times, but it is now reaching crunch-time – even for the pound, dollar, yen and euro. Most respected economists persist in defining inflation as a [more…]
Business
Sound Money Is a Pre-requisite to Peace, Prosperity, and Freedom
There are many good recommendations promoted by Austrian school economists for improving the economy. Although we enjoy successes periodically, most–such as deregulating trucking and airline pricing–involve eliminating previous government interventions. These successes are to be [more…]
America
Government Spending Cannot “Stimulate” the Economy
Government economic policy is completely backwards. We are told that massive deficit spending, interest rates driven to zero, and now higher taxes on the “rich” will bring the American economy out of the doldrums or [more…]