What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar [Hardcover]

Murray N. Rothbard (Author), Jörg Guido Hülsmann (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 2005

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.

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 191 pages
• Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute; 5th edition (September 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945466447
• ISBN-13: 978-0945466444
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top of the Line Analysis and Conclusions!!!, July 7, 2006

By 

David Lewis (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar (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!!!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for any economist or curious reader, April 23, 2006

By 

R. A. Williams (Elsah, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar (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"

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We still have new legal gold coins in this country, January 22, 2008

By 

J. Forseth (Home, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar (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..