The Mises Institute is pleased to present this very beautiful hardbound edition of Rothbard's most famous monetary essay--the one that has influenced two generations of economists, investors, and business professionals. The Mises Institute has united this book with its natural complement: a detailed reform proposal for a 100 percent gold dollar. The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar was written a decade before the last vestiges of the gold standard were abolished. His unique plan for making the dollar sound again still holds up. Some people have said: Rothbard tells us what is wrong with money but not what to do about it. Well, by adding this essay, the problem and the answer are united in a comprehensive whole. After presenting the basics of money and banking theory, he traces the decline of the dollar from the 18th century to the present, and provides lucid critiques of central banking, New Deal monetary policy, Nixonian fiat money, and fixed exchange rates. He also provides a blueprint for a return to a 100 percent reserve gold standard. The book made huge theoretical advances. He was the first to prove that the government, and only the government, can destroy money on a mass scale, and he showed exactly how they go about this dirty deed. But just as importantly, it is beautifully written. He tells a thrilling story because he loves the subject so much. The passion that Murray feels for the topic comes through in the prose and transfers to the reader. Readers become excited about the subject, and tell others. Students tell professors. Some, like the great Ron Paul of Texas, have even run for political office after having read it. 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.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) distinguished himself as an economist, writing a major treatise on theory, several important economic histories, and a highly praised history of economic thought. But he was also known as the pioneer thinker of libertarianism, the political philosophy that roots freedom in private property ownership and decries the state as inherently contrary to the ethics of a free society. Writing from this perspective, he gained a reputation as the most provocative and influential contributor to the anarchist tradition in our century.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Murray N. Rothbard is now recognised as one of the foremost economists of the last century, and rightly so. Not only does he write in a clear concise manner, but he takes what could be an unintelligible subject and explains it in terms everyone can grasp.
In this beautiful hardbound book Rothbard gives us an exceptionally clear, detailed description of what money is and how it has come to be manipulated by governments and central bankers into almost worthless inflationary fiat paper currency.
He explains how gold became the most respected and trustworthy currency of choice, how this developed into the gold standard when our paper money was actually backed by a real asset; gold, and then how our governments and particularly their central bankers then manipulated the situation until all we were left with was no gold standard and only fiat paper currency of no "real" value because it no longer had the backing of gold. He then explains very clearly how this situation has led us to where we are now; inflation and the rapidly diminishing purchasing power of the paper money we hold (over the last 30 years the real value of $1 has dropped to around 4 cents!!!!!), unnecessary asset bubbles and the prospect of either hyperinflation or the greatest depression the world has ever seen arriving in the very near future!
Mr. Rothbard then rightly argues for a return to the gold standard because of it's inherent automatic adjustment mechanisms due to the scarcity of gold in the ground and the finite quantity already above ground. More importantly he advocates a 100% reserves gold standard which would put an end to fractional reserve banking and thus the ruinous credit creation/oversupply of money by our central bankers and thus an end to rampant inflation as we know it! This would also force our governments to be more accountable to their electorate in that any government allowing an unbalanced economy would face long recessions as the gold standard auto adjustment mechanisms brought it back into equilibrium; henceforth governments would be wise to provide an environment that favoured slow steady growth for their country with minimal boom bust cycles.
Furthermore Mr. Rothbard adequately counters the criticisms of his conclusions & recommendations in detail.
I think most of us that bother to look further than our noses and not live with our head in the sand now realise the United States financial position(in particular) is untenable in the long term and there is going to be a very painful outcome either slowly creeping through the financial world in a dollar crisis OR precipitated by a large financial event, like the probable implosion of huge OTC derivatives positions. Either way this will herald the end of the world's latest foray into fiat paper currency; it will fail as it must and as fiat currencies always have in the past.
When that happens, HOPEFULLY we will return to a 100% gold standard where our paper money, gold grams or whatever are 100% backed by gold; the only true currency, and sanity can once again return to the finances of our world!
I wholeheartedly recommend this book to EVERYONE in the hope that more of the populations of the world can become educated to what we have been "sold" by our governments with these worthless paper currencies we now all hold in the hope that there can be a groundswell of opinion and an overwhelming chorus to return to sanity and a 100% gold standard! We deserve it!!!
In this beautiful hardbound book Rothbard gives us an exceptionally clear, detailed description of what money is and how it has come to be manipulated by governments and central bankers into almost worthless inflationary fiat paper currency.
He explains how gold became the most respected and trustworthy currency of choice, how this developed into the gold standard when our paper money was actually backed by a real asset; gold, and then how our governments and particularly their central bankers then manipulated the situation until all we were left with was no gold standard and only fiat paper currency of no "real" value because it no longer had the backing of gold. He then explains very clearly how this situation has led us to where we are now; inflation and the rapidly diminishing purchasing power of the paper money we hold (over the last 30 years the real value of $1 has dropped to around 4 cents!!!!!), unnecessary asset bubbles and the prospect of either hyperinflation or the greatest depression the world has ever seen arriving in the very near future!
Mr. Rothbard then rightly argues for a return to the gold standard because of it's inherent automatic adjustment mechanisms due to the scarcity of gold in the ground and the finite quantity already above ground. More importantly he advocates a 100% reserves gold standard which would put an end to fractional reserve banking and thus the ruinous credit creation/oversupply of money by our central bankers and thus an end to rampant inflation as we know it! This would also force our governments to be more accountable to their electorate in that any government allowing an unbalanced economy would face long recessions as the gold standard auto adjustment mechanisms brought it back into equilibrium; henceforth governments would be wise to provide an environment that favoured slow steady growth for their country with minimal boom bust cycles.
Furthermore Mr. Rothbard adequately counters the criticisms of his conclusions & recommendations in detail.
I think most of us that bother to look further than our noses and not live with our head in the sand now realise the United States financial position(in particular) is untenable in the long term and there is going to be a very painful outcome either slowly creeping through the financial world in a dollar crisis OR precipitated by a large financial event, like the probable implosion of huge OTC derivatives positions. Either way this will herald the end of the world's latest foray into fiat paper currency; it will fail as it must and as fiat currencies always have in the past.
When that happens, HOPEFULLY we will return to a 100% gold standard where our paper money, gold grams or whatever are 100% backed by gold; the only true currency, and sanity can once again return to the finances of our world!
I wholeheartedly recommend this book to EVERYONE in the hope that more of the populations of the world can become educated to what we have been "sold" by our governments with these worthless paper currencies we now all hold in the hope that there can be a groundswell of opinion and an overwhelming chorus to return to sanity and a 100% gold standard! We deserve it!!!
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Rothbard writes this book in a style not often found in todays politically charged books. Rather than ranting and throwing shots at opposition, Rothbard cafefully walks the reader through economic history and theory, and very cafefully dissects those with opposing viewpoints.
This books will leave you wanting more, as its a quick read (if your like me it will be done in a day or two). For further reading, I suggest "The case against the Fed" also by Rothbard.
For a complete book on Rothbard's view of economics, see "Man, Economy, and State"
This books will leave you wanting more, as its a quick read (if your like me it will be done in a day or two). For further reading, I suggest "The case against the Fed" also by Rothbard.
For a complete book on Rothbard's view of economics, see "Man, Economy, and State"
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
We have in fact a dual money system, Coins, Gold and Silver, are still minted according to the demands of our constitution. And it well proves the point of how dangerous is, and of how little worth today are the Fiat Dollars of the Federal Reserve. A $50 face value US gold coin can be gotten from the Treasury for just over $800 Federal reserve dollars, and rising by the day.
And recently a few people that still use the real money were hauled into court by the IRS for using those coins at face value to pay wages and purchase things. You see the problem was that in real [gold] money no one earned enough to have to share with the IRS and that greatly upset the IRS. So the IRS filed charges on a few people, a total of 176 counts and the jury failed to convict on even one because we do in fact have a dual money system in this country and the accused had done nothing illegal. It's simply not their fault the Federal Reserve [Fiat money] system is failing to hold its supposed value and has caused inflation at a current level of over 16 to 1, and still rising. Look it up, the court case, if you want a good insight into the current and very real story of the huge differences in our two monetary systems, both of which are doing exactly what people have been writing about for years..
And recently a few people that still use the real money were hauled into court by the IRS for using those coins at face value to pay wages and purchase things. You see the problem was that in real [gold] money no one earned enough to have to share with the IRS and that greatly upset the IRS. So the IRS filed charges on a few people, a total of 176 counts and the jury failed to convict on even one because we do in fact have a dual money system in this country and the accused had done nothing illegal. It's simply not their fault the Federal Reserve [Fiat money] system is failing to hold its supposed value and has caused inflation at a current level of over 16 to 1, and still rising. Look it up, the court case, if you want a good insight into the current and very real story of the huge differences in our two monetary systems, both of which are doing exactly what people have been writing about for years..
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Pretty easy for me to understand
I think this was a good book for someone like me. I recommend it to people who aren't economists, but are interested in understanding some of the underlying issues in an economy.
Published 3 months ago by K. Braddock
Unconvincing Romanticized View of the Gold Standard
I expect that this will go over about as well as a critical review of The Bible . . .
1. Is a gold standard really needed? Read more
1. Is a gold standard really needed? Read more
Published 15 months ago by Anne e Nonomous
Rothbard the renaissance man. Brilliant!!
I have an MBA from a tier 1 school, but I found myself humbled by Rothbard. I am now reading Man, Economy and State because I was so impressed with this book. Read more
Published 15 months ago by George Kucera
Hard to Take the Truth
This book seems to be a collection of parts of other works, but that is fine. The central arguments are simple and powerful, and perhaps of that, it is sure to be ignored. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Thomas Curry
to understand money
What is money? How did money originate? Why have money at all? What role does money play in the economy? What is so special about gold and silver? What is the gold standard? Read more
Published 20 months ago by canteloop
Lucid, well-written, simple to understand
Like Einstein once said: if you can't explain it in a simple way, you probably don't understand it yourself. Read more
Published 24 months ago by A. Tjallinks
Start with this!
Actually you should start with Economics in One Lesson, but this should be read soon after. Rothbard does to money what Hazlitt did to economics. I.e. Read more
Published on February 25, 2010 by Paul Rantanen
The real issue is how to crush parasitical finance capital
The problem of financial crises is caused by the excessive power of finance capital, a trend started in 1980, when finance capital staged a coup d'etat (Volcker-Reagan) and... Read more
Published on January 5, 2010 by Carl Stoll
Great introductory book for anyone
The title makes it seem as though the whole book is about government's intervention in economics. While Rothbard does present an impeccable case against it, the book gives the... Read more
Published on December 16, 2009 by Fish
Essential Reading on Money/Gold.
If I could only recommend one of Murray Rothbard's excellent books to the average person, it would definitly be his easy to read and thoroughly explanative and concise treatment of... Read more
Published on October 8, 2009 by W. B. Perry
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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