| |
Shop
| |  |
|
Best Sellers
| | Home The Case Against the Fed | |
|  | |  | | | The Case Against the Fed | | | | | SKU:
| | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | 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. | | | |
List Price:
| | |
Our Price:
| $9.95
& eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
| |
You Save:
| |
| | |
|
| | Product Promotions | | |
| | Product Details | | Author: | Murray N. Rothbard | | Paperback: | 158 pages | | Publisher: | Ludwig Von Mises Institute | | Publication Date: | September 04, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 094546617X | | Package Length: | 8.4 inches | | Package Width: | 5.2 inches | | Package Height: | 0.4 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.5 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 53 reviews |
| |
| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 I'm not sure his case was ever made Feb 26, 2010
Some people give negative ratings for a book if it doesn't match their political/economical philosophy. Just to be clear, I believe my overall political/economical philosophy is pretty similar to the author's, although Rothbard is more of an anarchist and I'm more of a classic Friedman-libertarian. But we're in the same ballpark, at least. So just to be clear, my rating of this book is not a disagreement with the author's premise, but really a rating on the quality of the writing, how well the author supported his logical conclusions, etc.
I give the book two stars primarily because I don't think Rothbard ever clearly stated the "case" against the Fed. Well over half of the book was merely a history lesson describing how the Fed came to be and who the major players were--but which contributed nothing to his overall "case" except that the Fed emanated from big-banking interests. Instead of spending time on the history lesson, I would've preferred to spend more time on the pros/cons of FDIC and a more thorough treatment of the discount window (which was literally just a footnote in this book). For instance, the author rails on FDIC, but it's hard to argue that bank runs are a thing of the past since FDIC--so if FDIC is abolished, and the Fed is abolished, how do we stop bank runs, which have been academically proven to cause real damage to an economy. I was hoping this book offered real alternatives that would still help protect the economy from bank runs, but I'm afraid that was never covered. The conclusion of the book was to abolish the Fed and FDIC, but the ramifications of this were made to seem negligible, discussed only over a page or two that over-simplified what abolishing the Fed and FDIC and going back to the gold standard would really mean.
In summary, I never felt like the author made the logical connections required to say conclusively that the Fed should be ended. And I really don't think he offered realistic alternatives. He basically called for a return to the gold standard, an abolition of the Fed and of FDIC, but with no discussion of how we can avoid damaging bank runs and cyclical confidence in banking without those institutions (which I believe is possible, but was simply never covered by the author).
 What you don't know is... Feb 25, 2010
"The Case Against the Fed" is lay reader's guide for understanding why some think the Federal Reserve System is not needed. Rothbard, an economist, starts with a very readable explanation of how banking got started, then moves forward to our present system. With the stage set he then dives into the history of how the Federal Reserve System as we know it came to be; after which he explains how it works. The case he builds against the Federal Reserve System has to do with the foundations of the system: how it came into being, who spear-headed the movement, exactly what it does, and how this affects our money, our economy, and how it creates (that's right, creates) inflation rather than combatting it. This short and very readable book is essential reading for everyone as the Fed comes under more and more scrutiny by Congress and those seeking know how to avoid the cyclical recessions of the past 125 years.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Eye opening Feb 19, 2010
I have learned a lot from reading this book, and it explained and informed many of my investment decisions (I run a hedge fund) -- in the early 2009 my signals pointed at investing in the (apparently bankrupt) finance sector, which I did, with great success (not, sadly, as great in absolute terms as David Tepper, who made the same play). The fact of the matter was that the Fed had the interests of the big banks at heart, and these would not be allowed to fail, not because they were "too big to fail", but because the Fed (as made apparent by Rothbard) works for them. Interestingly, while there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth over TARP, what has been completely ignored was the real government bank bailout, where the banks borrow money from the government (sorry, the Fed, an, um, independent, yeah, that's it..., entity) at 0% and lend it back to the government (meaning, us taxpayers) at 3.7% interest. This is the "trading income" (trade = "carry trade") which caused Goldman et al to post record profits last year.
I would also like to thank Thomas E Woods Jr (a frequent poster here) for turning me on to Rothbard and the Austrian School through his (highly recommended) book Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse
If You Tell a Lie Long Enough, People Will Believe It Jan 13, 2010
Good book for an understandable overview of the Fed and how it operates. Although the title of the book is "The Case Against the Fed" the majority of the book involves the history of how the Federal Reserve actually came about. Of course that needs to be understood to see why it was forced upon the U.S. by Wall Street bankers and their "hired gun" economists.
When the Fed prints or writes a check on itself, it is no different than counterfeiting - the effect on the money supply and the economy is the same. Whoever has the dollars first benefits at the expense of those at the end of the chain. That's what classical economists overlooked: increasing the money supply redistributes wealth.
So instead of the banking system being self-correcting, with the Fed in charge, it could now inflate during recessions, which in the past had eliminated excesses by liquidating unsound investments. Business cycles would get more severe.
FDIC insurance is a fraud, since the payment to collapsed banks is basically an uninsurable risk. This is why the S&L crisis of the 1908s destroyed the FSLIC.
Through the years, all restraints have been removed from the Fed, which now can do literally whatever it wants. We cannot count on the Fed to control inflation, they are the reason we have inflation. The author also shows how we can eliminate the Fed with very little impact on the current banking system.
I've got a degree in economics, and this should be required reading. It is extremely relevant to our current banking meltdown.
Dismantling the Fed Nov 16, 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed Rothbard's comprehensive break down of our monetary system and the development of the Fed. As a current undergraduate student with no prior formal education in Economics at this level, I found the material to be easy to follow as well as easy to understand. With many citations to back up his arguments, I boast this book to be a quick and concise take on this matter. It's perfect to get a basic understanding for US Economics, Fractional-Reserve Banking, the Fed, and all the characters that came into play building this establishment.
| |
| |
| |  | |  |
|
Recently Viewed | You may also like ...
|
