A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II

The master teacher of American economic history covers money and banking in the whole of American history, to show that the meltdown of our times is hardly the first. And guess what caused them in the past? Paper money, loose credit, reckless lending standards, government profligacy, and central banking

Autor: Murray Rothbard

Año: 2005

Encuadernación: tapa dura

Páginas: 510

Idioma: Inglés

Editorial: Ludwig von Mises Institute

Contenido

I. "The History of Money and Banking Before the Twentieth Century."

This was Rothbard's contribution to the minority report of the US Gold Commission and treats the evolution of the US monetary system from its colonial beginnings.

II. "Origins of the Federal Reserve."

This thrilling paper lay unpublished for a long time and only recently appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. It is easily the most comprehensive account in print. It names names and shows the constellation of interest-group affiliations that led to its creation.

III. "From Hoover to Roosevelt: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Elites."

This previously unpublished paper goes into great detail on how the Morgan and Rockefeller financial interests shaped the political and behavior of the Fed.

IV. "The Gold-Exchange Standard in the Interwar Years."
This large section has appeared in print but not in its full version. Rothbard elucidates the reasons why the British and US government in the 1920s re-created the gold standard in a manner that was profoundly flawed and potentially inflationary (leading to the Great Depression).

V. "The New Deal and the International Monetary System"
This section appeared in a volume first published in 1976 and which is now very difficult to find. Rothbard argues that an abrupt shift occurred in monetary policy just before the US entered World War. He shows who benefited from the shift from dollar nationalism to dollar imperialism. He concludes with a smashing attack and expose of the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944.