Due to the interest surrounding the COMER suit being brought against the Bank of Canada, I thought it would be illuminating for people to view this Lecture given by Chris Horlacher on the Birth and Death of the Bank of
History 
Daily Bell on the COMER Suit
It looks like this suit has been noticed by the Daily Bell – Interestingly enough, they draw the same conclusion as James Miller did in http://www.mises.ca/posts/blog/the-underlying-goal-of-the-bank-of-canada-lawsuit/ Good to see attention drawn to the B of C, bad to see Canadian Greenbackers
Bank of Canada Act
Bank of Canada Act R.S.C., 1985, c. B-2 An Act respecting the Bank of Canada Preamble WHEREAS it is desirable to establish a central bank in Canada to regulate credit and currency in the best interests of the economic life
Civil War and the American Political Economy
[Originally published in the Freeman, Volume 61, Issue 3, April 2011] The task before us is to assess in largely material terms the political-economic system arising during and after the American Civil War. Ideological issues existed, certainly, but much
What is Laissez-Faire?
[Originally posted at The Daily Reckoning, Sunday, December 18th, 2011] The latest data show that book sales are way up this season. So much for the prediction that books will be killed by technology. On the contrary, technology has enabled
U.S. Interest Rates from 1831-2011
Very interesting, via Bianco Research LLC (h/t Big Picture): A few things of note: –Look at the rate floor pre-Federal Reserve (1913). It doesn’t appear to go below 3% at all. When I drove my grandmother to a doctor appointment
Austrian Economics and its Place
It would be unfair to speak of the Austrian resurgence without highlighting the importance of the academic revival that the Austrian school enjoyed between around 1974[ref]In June 1974, the Institute for Human Studies hosted a conference in South Royalton, Vermont, which
A Review of Gary North’s Marx’s Religion of Revolution
[For readers who want to go beyond a mere review, a full copy of Marx’s Religion of Revolution is available at http://www.entrewave.com/freebooks/docs/a_pdfs/gnmr.pdf] From its very inception, in the highly scientistic[i] nineteenth century, Marxist Communism has presented itself as perhaps the
The Many Monopolies
We libertarians defend economic freedom, not big business. We advocate free markets, not the corporate economy. And what would freed markets look like? Nothing like the controlled markets we have today. But how often do we hear mass unemployment, financial crisis,
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Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty
[Originally appeared in Left and Right, Spring 1965, pp. 4-22.] The Conservative has long been marked, whether he knows it or not, by long-run pessimism: by the belief that the long-run trend, and therefore Time itself, is against him, and hence
Those Who Control the Past Control the Future
There’s a popular historical legend that goes like this: Once upon a time (for this is how stories of this kind should begin), back in the 19th century, the United States economy was almost completely unregulated and laissez-faire. But then
Endgame
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as
More Government Please? Give Me a Break
Thomas Frank’s “Easy Chair-More Government Please!”(More_Government_Please) which recently appeared in Harper’s Magazine is yet another short sighted plea in a mainstream publication for the benevolence of government to aid in the effort of putting people back to work. In what amounts
The Ever-Changing Means of Mr Doubter…
[Originally posted at Gresham's Law] Mr Doubter, otherwise known as the child who pointed out the Emperor’s lack of clothes, has always played a key role in monetary affairs. However, the tools with which he has done his doubting have
Paper bugs, or, Stupid Arguments Against Gold
Originally posted @Â http://www.freebanking.org/ Persons familiar with my writings on monetary reform know that, far from being anyone’s idea of a gold bug, and despite my conviction that those monies work best that governments govern least, I’ve always shied away from
The Green Superstate – what the global warmers really want
Who poses the greater threat to freedom?  Colonel Gaddafi? The Taliban? Or let’s look closer to home, at a sinister group with far, far greater influence on the future of Western civilization. The Green zealots, with their bicycles and wispy
Honest Graft – George Washington Plunkitt
I thought a good follow up to James Miller’s post on  60 Minutes and Congressional Insider Trading would be this speech by George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall Fame. Refreshing to see this kind honesty – we could use more of
Taylorism, Progressivism, and Rule by Experts
[Originally published in the Freeman, September 2011, Volume 61, Issue 7] The Progressive movement at the turn of the twentieth century—the doctrine from which the main current of modern liberalism developed—is sometimes erroneously viewed as an “anti-business†philosophy. It was
The Ethics of Central Banking
Here is a link to my presentation on the Ethics of Central Banking that I did on October 22. This was part of the Austrian Monetary Conference held at the University of Toronto and hosted by the Ludwig von Mises
Eugenics: Progressivism’s Ultimate Social Engineering
[Originally published in the Freeman, October 2011, Volume 61, Issue 8] According to the received account of the Progressive Era, an enlightened government swept in and regulated markets for goods, labor, and capital, thereby protecting the hapless masses from the
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