Monetary Policy

Central Banking Is Central Planning

by Richard M. Ebeling April 25, 2019

At a time when the appeal of and demands for a new “democratic” socialism seem to have caught the imagination of many among the young and are reflected in the promises of a good number of political candidates running for high office, there is one already-existing socialist institution in America with few opponents: the Federal Reserve System. The fact is, ...

The Libertarian Angle: Monetary Central Planning (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 6, 2019

Would the free market allocate money as efficiently as other goods? Of course! FFF president Jacob G. Hornberger and Citadel economics professor Richard M. Ebeling discuss. Go to the podcast.

The Dangers of Negative Interest Rates and a Cashless Economy

by Richard M. Ebeling January 10, 2019

The recent gyrations in the stock market and the uncertainties surrounding American trade policies with China and other parts of the world have raised the question of when the next recession will inevitably follow the current economic recovery from the 2008-9 financial crisis. In the face of a future economic downturn, some economic policy analysts are already making the ...

Government, Gold, and Separating Money From the State

by Richard M. Ebeling October 25, 2018

How long will the current improvement in employment and output growth continue? Will the Federal Reserve’s recent policy of nudging up market interest rates impede growth and employment, or will it act as a damper on possible future price inflation without slowing down the economy or pushing it into a new recession? The news media and policy pundits have been ...

The Libertarian Angle: End the Fed

by Future of Freedom Foundation July 31, 2018

What is a fiat currency and how does the state benefit from controlling the money supply? FFF president Jacob G. Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discuss. Go to the podcast.

The Myth that Central Banks Assure Economic Stability

by Richard M. Ebeling May 29, 2018

Greek The world has been plagued with periodic bouts of the economic rollercoaster of booms and busts, inflations and recessions, especially during the last one hundred years. The main culprits responsible for these destabilizing and disruptive episodes have been governments and their central banks. They have monopolized the control of their respective nation’s monetary and ...

Monetary Fallacies and Inflationary Bubbles

by Richard M. Ebeling May 14, 2018

Looking to the next few years ahead, is America and the world going to continue riding a wave of economic growth, improving standards of living, falling and lower unemployment, and technological changes that will continue to raise the quality and variety of life? Or will this turn out to be, at least partly, an artificial economic boom that will ...

The Libertarian Angle: Free Banking and Bitcoin

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 27, 2018

Special guest Larry White, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and professor of economics at George Mason University, joins Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling to discuss Bitcoin and what a free market in money would look like. Go to the podcast https://libertarianangle.libsyn.com/.

Mises the Man and His Monetary Policy Ideas Based on His “Lost Papers”

by Richard M. Ebeling March 26, 2018

One day in 1927 Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, stood at the window of his office at the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, and looked out over the Ringstrasse (the main grand boulevard that encircles the center of Vienna). He said to his young friend and former student, Fritz Machlup, “Maybe grass will grow there, because our civilization will end.” ...

Debauching the Currency

by James Cook November 1, 2017

Often people who make gloomy predictions about the economy have an ulterior motive. They want to sell a newsletter, a book, precious metals, or even storage food. In some cases they have no basis for their views other than an opinion. I like to think that what I write originates with the economic thinkers of the Austrian School of ...

The Libertarian Angle: End the Fed (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation October 24, 2017

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling challenge the orthodoxy that the government must manage the money supply. Go to the podcast.

Austrian Monetary Theory vs. Federal Reserve Inflation Targeting

by Richard M. Ebeling August 21, 2017

One of the leading policy guideposts for central banks and many monetary policy proponents nowadays is the idea of “inflation targeting.” Several major central banks around the world, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, have set a goal of two percent price inflation. The problem is, what central bankers are targeting is a phantom that does not ...