Category: Banking / Finance

The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913, ostensibly to provide economic stability and prosperity. Within 17 years would come the Great Depression, and while the United States has enjoyed great increases in the standard of living since then, have those gains been aided by our banking and finance system, or have they occurred in spite of it? What level of involvement should our federal government have in the regulation of the product we call money?

  1. Meltdown by Thomas E. Woods

    Reviewed by: Joshua Steimle on April 20th, 2011 Categories: Banking / Finance, Economics Comments: 0

    General Overview (from Amazon.com)
    If you are fed up with Washington boondoggles, and you like the small-government, politically-incorrect thinking of Ron Paul, then you’ll love Tom Woods’s Meltdown. In clear, no-nonsense terms, Woods explains what led up to this economic crisis, who’s really to blame, and why government bailouts won’t work. Woods will reveal:

    • Which brave few economists predicted the economic fallout–and why nobody listened
    • What really caused the collapse
    • Why the Fed–not taxpayers–should have to answer for the current economic crisis
    • Why bailouts are band-aids that will only provide temporary relief and ultimately make things worse
    • What we should do instead, to put our economy on a healthy path to recovery

    With a foreword from Ron Paul, Meltdown is the free-market answer to the Fed-created economic crisis. As the new Obama administration inevitably calls for more regulations, Woods argues that the only way to rebuild our economy is by returning to the fundamentals of capitalism and letting the free market work.

    Why the President Should Read This Book
    Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Yes, it’s cliche, but cliches become what they are generally because they’re true, and nothing seems more true when it comes … Read the rest of this entry »

  2. The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard

    Reviewed by: Joshua Steimle on April 19th, 2011 Categories: Banking / Finance, Economics Comments: 0

    Introduction
    By far the most secret and least accountable operation of the federal government is not, as one might expect, the CIA, DIA, or some other super-secret intelligence agency. The CIA and other intelligence operations are under control of the Congress. They are accountable: a Congressional committee supervises these operations, controls their budgets, and is informed of their covert activities. It is true that the committee hearings and activities are closed to the public; but at least the people’s representatives in Congress insure some accountability for these secret agencies.

    It is little known, however, that there is a federal agency that tops the others in secrecy by a country mile. The Federal Reserve System is accountable to no one; it has no budget; it is subject to no audit; and no Congressional committee knows of, or can truly supervise, its operations. The Federal Reserve, virtually in total control of the nation’s vital monetary system, is accountable to nobody — and this strange situation, if acknowledged at all, is invariably trumpeted as a virtue.

    From The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard

    Why the President Should Read This Book
    When we think of threats to our liberty, we often … Read the rest of this entry »

  3. What Has Government Done to Our Money? by Murray N. Rothbard

    Reviewed by: Joshua Steimle on April 19th, 2011 Categories: Banking / Finance, Economics Comments: 0

    General Overview
    In this brief book Murray N. Rothbard shows precisely how banks create money out of thin air and how the central bank, backed by government power, allows them to get away with it. He shows how exchange rates and interest rates would work in a true free market. When it comes to describing the end of the gold standard, he is not content to describe the big trends. He names names and ferrets out all the interest groups involved.

    Since Rothbard’s death, scholars have worked to assess his legacy, and many of them agree that this little book is one of his most important. Though it has sometimes been inauspiciously packaged and is surprisingly short, its argument took huge strides toward explaining that it is impossible to understand public affairs in our time without understanding money and its destruction.

    About the Author
    Murray N. Rothbard, the author of 25 books and thousands of articles, was a historian, philosopher, and dean of the Austrian School of economics. The S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he was also Academic Vice President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.

    Why the President … Read the rest of this entry »

  4. Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed

    Reviewed by: Joshua Steimle on June 30th, 2010 Categories: Banking / Finance Comments: 0

    General Description (From AudioFile)

    Even those who aren’t generally interested in economics will enjoy this historical look at wealth and power in the early twentieth century. Four magnates, each with the power of his country’s federal reserve, controlled the world’s finances. Their dealings in regulating the cost of currency among their respective countries became influential in causing the Great Depression. Stephen Hoye hones in on the author’s brutal use of satire in attacking the four lords’ ascendancy. Since the story deals with England, France, Germany, and the United States, Hoye’s multilingual talents add depth to the characters and their milieus, adding an extra reason to enjoy his performance. Brimming with subtle humor and abundant detail, this audiobook is smartly enhanced by the narrator’s skill and will be enjoyed by connoisseurs of both history and economics. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

    Why the President Should Read It
    The similarities between our current economic troubles and those that occurred at the beginning of the Great Depression are striking. Equally important are the decades that led to both crises, and in order to understand the potential solutions to our current crisis, it would be helpful if our President understood the events … Read the rest of this entry »