Financial Markets

"By anticipating the future, speculators may bring about events earlier and reduce their potential harm."

Governments have caused the monetary and economic debacle by taking control of money production.

"There can be no such thing as a Keynesian state on the gold standard, any more then a cocaine addict or compulsive gambler can be on a strict budget."

"Do you think Alan might basically be a social climber?"—Ayn Rand

The truth of the matter is that, far from causing starvation and famines, it is the speculator who prevents them.

This is embarrassing. Here we have a textbook on money, banking, and financial markets, where, presumably, interest-rate theory should play a central role. But there is no theory of interest here.

Unless Hugo Chavez's government suddenly ends spending and returns to a free market, the most likely conclusion to current events in Venezuela is a crisis of interventionism, as the bolívar collapses and the government finds it more and more difficult to fund itself.

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

"It's hard to be a contrarian. With the bubble in full bloom, the last thing you want to tell the boys at the club is that you have your money in cash or gold."

"There is a definite sense in which the government plays by a different rulebook, because the central bank waits in the wings to monetize its debts."