As the title of this essay suggests, a loan is an exchange of wealth for income. Like everything else in a free market (imagine happier days of yore), it is a voluntary trade. Contrary to the endemic language of victimization, both parties regard themselves as gaining thereby, or else they would not enter into the [...]
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Irredeemable Paper Money, Feature #451
Kondratieff, among several others, have observed that rising prices lead to rising interest rates and vice versa. And the opposite case is also true, falling interest rates go with falling prices (all else being equal). I plan to write a separate paper on this topic. One of the most important ideas proposed by Professor Fekete [...]
Falling Interest Rates Destroy Capital
I have written other pieces on the topic of fractional reserve banking (Fractional Reserve is Not the Problem) duration mismatch, which is when someone borrows short-term money to lend long-term and how falling interest rates actually encourages duration mismatch. Falling interest rates are a feature of our current monetary regime, so central that any look [...]
Inflation: An Expansion of Counterfeit Credit
The Keynesians and Monetarists have fooled people with a clever sleight of hand. They have convinced people to look at prices (especially consumer prices) to understand what’s happening in the monetary system. Anyone who has ever been at a magic act performance is familiar with how sleight of hand often works. With a huge flourish [...]
Gold – Pieces Of 50
As we move forwards towards a gold standard, we will need many new innovations (as well as a rediscovery of old things that have long been forgotten). At the Gold Symposium in Sydney Australia, I saw an exhibitor who has a new, innovative product. They have thin sheets (almost like wafers, especially the gold ones). [...]
Duration Mismatch Will Always Fail
I have written a number of pieces on fractional reserve banking and duration mismatch. I have argued that the former is perfectly fine, both morally and economically, but the latter is not fine. I have dissected the arguments made against fractional reserve banking, and pointed out that it is nothing more than a bank lending [...]
The Unadulterated Gold Standard Part V
The Real Bill is credit provided for clearing, without lending or borrowing. It is different than a bond. To review the bond, in Part III we showed how it arises out of the need to save. People must plan for retirement and senescence during their working years. Even if there is no way to lend [...]
The Unadulterated Gold Standard Part IV
In this Part IV, we consider another kind of credit: the Real Bill. We must acknowledge that this topic is controversial because of the belief that Real Bills are inflationary. This author proposes that inflation should not be defined as an increase in the money supply per se, but of counterfeit credit (Inflation: An Expansion [...]
The Unadulterated Gold Standard Part III
There would be no central bank with its “experts” to dictate the rate of interest and no “lender of last resort”. There would be no Securities Act, no deposit insurance, no armies of banking regulators, and definitely no bailouts or “too big to fail”. The government would have little role in the monetary system, save [...]
The Unadulterated Gold Standard Part II
The essential was that people had a right to own and trade gold coins. They had the right to deposit them in a bank, if the bank offered attractive terms (especially the payment of interest). Banks had a right to take deposits, to buy assets, and to pay interest. Banks had a right to issue [...]