by Murray N. Rothbard
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Product Description
The most powerful case against the American central bank ever written. This work begins with a mini-treatment of money and banking theory, and then plunges right in with the real history of the Federal Reserve System. Rothbard covers the struggle between competing elites and how they converged with the Fed. Rothbard calls for the abolition of the central bank and a restoration of the gold standard. His popular treatment incorporates the best and most up-to-date scholarship on the Fed's origins and effects.
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Average Customer Review:
2 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
 Stopped by the Introduction, 2008-04-18
While I have no doubt that the Fed and other central banks can and do create inflation, Rothbard's introduction to money is so simplistic and so misleading that it stopped me cold in my tracks. If his conclusions are based on the foundation laid in the introduction, the whole argument is worthless. Rothbard's argument in the introduction is that only the Fed is permitted to print Federal Reserve Notes (correct) and that these notes are the only money in existence. This last statement is a grave error, Rothbard is confusing money with legal tender. The notes are the only form of legal tender in circulation but there are many other forms of money in circulation as well: bank deposits, mortgage loans and any other form of credit increases the money in circulation -- not the legal tender but money as perceived by markets. If we are to believe "Irrational Exuberance," even stock certificates act as money because they create the "wealth effect." All this is ignored by Rothbard in his introduction to money.
The purpose of Rothbard's introduction is to show that the ordinary citizen cannot create money and therefore cannot create inflation and the logical conclusion he arrives at is that only the Fed can create inflation. This is nonsense. Any society can create money. In jail they use cigarettes as money. Before the Fed was created money existed in many forms including sea shells and animal pelts.
Inflation is the setting to right of the unbalance between the supply of money (too abundant) and the supply of goods and services (too scarce). But the market does not care if that money is a piece of paper printed by the Fed, gold, the wealth effect of stocks or the bubbly prices of real estate.
I must conclude that Rothbard twisted economics into the service of politics.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Book Review- The Case Against The Fed, 2008-04-05
As is typical of all books about banking and economics, this book requires a strong interest on the part of the reader or it would not be considered enjoyable reading. For anyone wanting to understand the U.S. banking sytem and the Federal Reserve System this book should be required reading. Murray Rothbard did not have the writing talent of G. Edward Griffin, but he gets his point across in a much shorter book and was no doubt one of the most enlightened economists of the twentieth century.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Good read!!, 2008-02-28
The problem of inflation is in fact astounding - how we make the general public understand is a daunting task and how we overcome the issue of inflation is unsurmountable in my belief. The book touches everything related to creation, circulation, history and legislation behind money and central banking -- specifically "The Fed". While I agree with most of the information in the book, the case against fed is not convincing enough, not convincing enough for the general public to raise this issue with their government representatives, or in some manner even comprehend the problem of inflation and reserve banking. Only when this problem is understood by every lay man in simple terms, annihilation of central banking, inflation and reserve banking will be possible. Rothbard's simple solution is highly improbable - a solution to this problem means revolution and it takes a leader (not the puppets you have now) to challenge the system of central banking. Rothbard's solution to return to gold standard raises several questions -- will the American people still enjoy the prosperity that they enjoyed in a fiat currency system? Will the US still be a super power after the fiat currency system is forgone? What if the government needs to inflate money for genuine reasons? I have enjoyed reading the book, while I stand for returning to gold standard, I firmly believe I never see this in my lifetime. Good read!!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Excellent overview of Federal Reserve workings, 2008-02-25
Rothbard clearly and concisely explains the historical origins and workings of the Federal Reserve in a way that most people can easily understand, even without a background in economics. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to study the foundation of the American monetary system and the system's ramifications for "ordinary" citizens.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A little history, a little economics, a lot of sense, 2008-02-07
Rothbard gives an astonishing perspective on the history of monetary policy. After reading the book I felt enlightened, angry, and helpless. Ignorance is bliss, so we are lucky that the Fed is one of the most secretive organizations in the world.
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