Monetary Theory

Recorded at The Mises Circle in Manhattan, on May 22nd, 2010.

it is not possible to create something by printing money and redistributing real wealth. All that such policies produce is a further economic impoverishment.

"Mises's desideratum was thus not a 'neutral' money, or even a practical approximation of it; rather, it was the complete elimination of 'human influence' on the purchasing power of money."

A government which interferes with banking exposes itself to great danger of error, and such errors cost it popular confidence sooner than any others.

Men are always forced to choose between satisfaction in nearer and remoter periods of the future.

We suggest that loose fiscal and monetary policies have severely undermined the ability of the private sector to generate real wealth.

An ever-growing diversion of real wealth toward government nonproductive programs runs the risk of further weakening the ability of the United States to generate real wealth.

"The essence of 'immediate convertibility' is the difference between what Austrians call a claim transaction or warehouse receipt, like a demand deposit, and a credit transaction, like a time deposit."

"Governmental taxation provides one mean by which fiat money could come into existence."

"Nothing has been easier than to treat with contempt all the legislative provisions for the protection of the monetary standard. All governments, even the weakest and most incapable, have managed it without difficulty."