11 Nov 2013

Mises Admits That He Was Too Trusting of Governments

Inflation, Mises 8 Comments

I love this from page 780 of Human Action:

In dealing with the problems of the gold exchange standard all economists–including the author of this book–failed to realize the fact that it places in the hands of governments the power to manipulate their nations’ currency easily. Economists blithely assumed that no government of a civilized nation would use the gold exchange standard intentionally as an instrument of inflationary policy.

8 Responses to “Mises Admits That He Was Too Trusting of Governments”

  1. Major_Freedom says:

    Problem still exists today. Many of our so-called intellectuals blithely assumed that no government of a civilized nation would enact extra-judicial assassination of citizen powers…

    I believe every minarchist can only be on a path towards coming to grips with the reality of statism.

  2. Lord Keynes says:

    “Economists blithely assumed that no government of a civilized nation would use the gold exchange standard intentionally as an instrument of inflationary policy”

    Since many economists of the early 20th century understood that money supply should be elastic in response to demand for it from the private sector, this is either Mises’ over-the-top rhetoric or a sign of his gross ignorance.

    • Major_Freedom says:

      Since many more economists thought otherwise, your comment is either gross ignorance, or gross ignorance.

    • Rick Hull says:

      By elastic, you mean it expands and contracts? Or does it just expand until it breaks (c. 1971)?

    • Gamble says:

      Elastic implies expansion AND contraction.

      3.stretchy and flexible: describes an object or substance that can return quickly to its original shape and size after being bent, stretched, or squashed

  3. Bob Roddis says:

    For the record (and thanks to Rohan Grey for the great find), both the states and the US central government are completely proscribed by the 1787 constitution from “emitting bills of credit”, including paper money and computerized funny money.

    http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2013/11/constitutional-creation-of-common.html?showComment=1383957783241#c692077369965884114

    MF can shield his eyes from the Mike Norman link.

    • Ken Pruitt says:

      More proof the Constitution is garbage, if the information holds true.

  4. Gamble says:

    I love this article from Ron Paul. I used to call it CPILie, now I have to call is something like chained lie? Not sure about a funny name but I thought Lincoln abolished slavery, whips and chains? Apparently Lincoln merely spread it around.

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/11/ron-paul/chained-taxpayers%e2%80%a8/

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