Cover Image

The Case Against the Fed

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Murray N. Rothbard

Ludwig von Mises Institute

Auburn, Alabama 36849-5301

The Ludwig von Mises Institute
acknowledges with gratitude
the generosity of Mr. Doug Casey and
the Eugene B. Casey Foundation
and the Hon. Ron Paul and
CTAF, Inc.,
who made the publication
of this book possible.

Copyright © 1994 by Murray N. Rothbard

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute,
Auburn, Alabama 36849-5301.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-073591

ISBN: 0-945466-17-X

Cover photo by David Hittle.

Contents

Introduction: Money and Politics

The Genesis of Money

What is the Optimum Quantity of Money?

Monetary Inflation and Counterfeiting

Legalized Counterfeiting

Loan Banking

Deposit Banking

Problems for the Fractional-Reserve Banker: The Criminal Law

Problems for the Fractional-Reserve Banker: Insolvency

Booms and Busts

Types of Warehouse Receipts

Enter the Central Bank

Easing the Limits on Bank Credit Expansion

The Central Bank Buys Assets

Origins of the Federal Reserve: The Advent of the National Banking System

Origins of the Federal Reserve: Wall Street Discontent

Putting Cartelization Across: The Progressive Line

Putting a Central Bank Across: Manipulating a Movement, 1897-1902

The Central Bank Movement Revives, 1906-1910

Culmination at Jekyll Island

The Fed at Last: Morgan-Controlled Inflation

The New Deal and the Displacement of the Morgans

Deposit “Insurance”

How the Fed Rules and Inflates

What Can Be Done?

Index

Notes