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The Mystery of Banking
Ludwig von Mises Institute ^
| 1983/2000
| Murray N. Rothbard
Posted on 09/16/2001 11:32:33 PM PDT by AntiTyrant
if you're looking for a good, smooth-drinking book on basic economics, with a healthy dose of skepticism, you can't do better than this. and there's no beating the price of $0.00. it's 177 pages in .pdf format. you will need to install the free adobe acrobat reader if you don't have it.
the mystery of banking begins with the history of barter and money (amazing reading if you've never considered the origin of money), gold/silver standards, supply/demand trends, and government's role in currency/inflation. then on to banking and the federal reserve, with everything tied nicely back to the preceding information. originally written as a textbook, but hardly seems boring enough to be called that.
print it out; it's worth the paper even if you don't agree with all of it. link follows . . .
| Rothbard on Banking, Back in Print (online) |
Murray N. Rothbard's out-of-print book The Mystery of Banking [.pdf] (Richardson & Synder, 1983) is now online. The format is .pdf, and the original pagination is marked in blue. The first 100 pages cover the core theory, and then it moves into history.  [PDF]
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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial
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To: AntiTyrant
Is this a plug? These people have always been weird.
To: BunnySlippers
Is this a plug? These people have always been weird.
i don't know about your definition of 'plug', but i normally associate that term with a money making venture. this certainly isn't that (the book is free), and i don't work for the mises institute. weird? why do you say that?
To: BunnySlippers
It is worth the read - and the education - I have a printed version in my personal library.
4
posted on
09/16/2001 11:47:24 PM PDT
by
Ron C.
To: AntiTyrant
Great link. Thanks.
To: AntiTyrant
Can you give me the highlites and such I am in a hurry tonight. Thanks OP
To: BunnySlippers
Please save a tree and don't waste your ink on this. It's a repition of an out-of-favor theory of money which has been debunked by history, empirical data and economic theory. Doesn't stop some people from spreading it though. Think of them as the flat-earth society of monetary economics.
To: Economist_MA
flat earth society of economics? but your in Massahussettes? One giant flat earth society?
8
posted on
09/16/2001 11:59:18 PM PDT
by
GeronL
To: Economist_MA
Do you have any counter-recommendations?
To: Economist_MA
What's the biggest mistake in it?
To: Economist_MA
that sounds like an awfully jaded and hasty write off of an intriguing and brief enough book. assuming from your handle that you're well versed in economics, perhaps you could consider the usefulness of this book for those who are just entering the field. i don't know about you, but i NEVER read a book and accept any of it without proper scrutiny, and it's that scrutiny which i find to be the worthwhile part of this book, your dismissal notwithstanding.
say what you will, i think you will agree (if you've read the whole thing) that the entire book is not wrong. if one approaches it as a skeptic, tossing the theories around for oneself, the mere act of figuring out which parts one accepts is a wonderful exercise. i think you should consider that what may not be good for someone with your background could be the perfect introduction for someone else. you probably saw in my intro the implication that some would not agree with the book.
it's a shame sometimes to see the clouds of gloom an insider can bring to the table of learning. i need to remember that in my own realm of expertise as well.
To: jodorowsky
There are too many of them to even start listing them, and I won't attempt to rank them. Claiming that fractional reserve banking is a form of immoral embezzlement is rather funny and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the monetary process, in particular in relation to expectation formation (Lucas).
Somebody asked for counter-recommendations. The current standard wisdom in monetary economics is that an independent central bank with a strong mandate to keep core inflation at steady, predictable and fairly low levels (1-3%) is the best solution. A return to the gold standard or private money or any such nonsense would be a disaster, tying monetary growth to some essentially irrelevant commodity and open the door again to disruptive deflation.
To: AntiTyrant
I read the book in the 1980s, but if I recall correctly than the explanations of the basic mechanisms were pretty decent.
The conclusions are incorrect though, and the mechanisms are equally well explained by other textbooks whose authors don't have a flat-earth agenda to push.
I personally would recommend "The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets" by Mishkin, which is a standard and well-written introduction for people with essentially no background in economics. There is a paper back version, so it's even affordable.
To: Economist_MA
Sorry about the typos - I should go to bed. Good night!
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