What Has Government Done to Our Money

Preface to "What Has Government Done to Our Money?" 2006

Jörg Guido Hülsmann · 10:36 · 2.4 MB · Recorded 8 September 2006

Hülsmann introduces Rothbard's life and scholarship ahead of a new edition of the book. He surveys Rothbard's Austrian economics, political philosophy and historical writing, calls the book the clearest introduction to monetary theory, and previews its case against state control of money.

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I. Introduction 2006

Murray N. Rothbard · 3:35 · 859 KB · Recorded 15 September 2006

Rothbard opens by framing money as the most confused and government entangled subject in economics. He asks whether money can be organized on free market principles like any other good, previewing the book's inquiry into a free market in money and the effects of government control.

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II. Money in a Free Society 2006

Murray N. Rothbard · 1:18:10 · 17.9 MB · Recorded 22 September 2006

Rothbard explains how money emerges from barter through the market's selection of a commodity. He covers gold and silver as money, the monetary unit as a weight, private coinage, the market determined money supply, cash balances and hoarding, then argues fractional reserve banking is fraud while 100% reserve free banking would be sound.

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III. Government Meddling With Money 2006

Murray N. Rothbard · 1:06:03 · 15.1 MB · Recorded 30 September 2006

Rothbard traces how governments seized control of money, from minting monopolies to central banking. He covers coin debasement, Gresham's law, legal tender laws, suspended specie payments, the Federal Reserve's creation, and the shift from gold coin to bullion to pure fiat paper with private gold ownership outlawed.

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IV. The Monetary Breakdown of the West 2006

Murray N. Rothbard · 44:13 · 10.1 MB · Recorded 6 October 2006

Rothbard narrates the twentieth century collapse of the international gold standard. He traces the classical gold standard, the interwar gold exchange standard, Bretton Woods, its unraveling after 1968, the Smithsonian Agreement, and the 1973 shift to fluctuating fiat currencies, predicting continued dollar depreciation without a return to gold.

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The Case for a 100% Gold Dollar, Part 1 2006

Murray N. Rothbard · 52:52 · 12.1 MB · Recorded 12 October 2006

Rothbard's 1962 essay argues money should be a market chosen weight of gold, not a state name. His 1991 preface recounts how gold's post Bretton Woods price rise vindicated Austrian predictions over Keynesian and Friedmanite forecasts, and the essay traces how governments monopolized minting and shifted emphasis from weight to name.

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The Case for a 100% Gold Dollar, Part 2 2006

Murray N. Rothbard · 53:34 · 12.3 MB · Recorded 20 October 2006

Rothbard argues fractional reserve banking is fraud and proposes replacing it with gold reserves. He rebuts objections about bank profitability and money supply adequacy, engages Leland Yeager's defense of fluctuating fiat money, situates the proposal in the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian hard money tradition, and outlines a transition plan to a 100% gold dollar.

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