Conservative Book Talk

I don’t know about you, but I think I slept through Economics. Actually, I’m not sure I ever had such a class in high school and never got it in college. So, with all of this guff about money in the news, I wanted to know some more. A friend and I were discussing the value of the gold standard and whether it was even possible to return to a true gold standard and consequently have a hard currency. He pointed me this book by the late Rothbard.

Rothbard is called a Libertarian because he believes that the free market works and that government should stay out of our lives. With that definition, I guess one could define me similarly (though true Libertarians and I disagree on quite a bit). Unfortunately, the label of Libertarian prevents people from bothering with Rothbard’s work. That’s a shame, because unlike Keynesian philosophy (as exemplified by President Obama and the Treasury Secretary) teaches that controlled inflation is good and that the government can buy its way out of economic downturns. That’s a very illogical idea and Rothbard demonstrates it exceedingly well.

Some people are going to stop reading this review now. Please don’t. Hang in a little longer.

As I said, money/economics is not my strong point. I get easily confused when they throw the terms around. Still, with all of this stuff about bailouts for fiscally foolish decisions and such, I wanted, rather *needed* to know more. So, I decided to listen to this book.

Rothbard was a professor and I wish that I had been a student of his. He explains in simple terms so that even I could understand the foundation of the free market system. He leads you through the Bretton Woods agreement, to the final dissolution of the gold standard. When you are finished with this book, you may still agree with the bailouts, but you will have a new perspective on them.

Spend the time and work through this. The recording is high quality and free. There is a PDF and so forth. Spend some time and tell me what you think.

Personally, I oppose the bailouts because its an artificial construct based on theft. The theft: inflation. Rothbard explains this so clearly, but let me attempt to explain it. There are three ways for a government to acquire money: steal it by force, tax it, and inflate it. You understand the first two. Suppose that there was $100 in the entire economy and you had $10 (wow! You’re rich!). Then government printed an additional $10. Now there is $110 in the economy and every dollar has been devalued by 10%. Your $10 is now worth $9.

That’s inflation and that’s theft.

Read this and let me know what you think. If nothing else, listen through the history of currency and the free market (the easier first half). That will be worth your time.

Tags: Economy, Finaces, Government, Matt Gardenghi, money, Murray Rothbard

Dead Men’s Money begins in a manner reminiscent of Stevenson’s Treasure Island. There is a young man, whose father is long dead. A mother who rents a room to a stranger. A stranger with secrets. And a secret trunk. The mysterious stranger becomes ill and needs to send the young man, Hugh Moneylaws, to a secret meeting in the middle of the night.

…a meeting that never occurs on account of the murder of one principal and the death of the other.

Hugh quietly notices a stranger traveling the country streets that night but doesn’t pay much attention. Later when he finds the corpse, who was supposed to be alive and conversing with him, Hugh is propelled into a tangled web of intrigue that crosses three continents and leads to other nefarious murders.

Hugh an apprentice/head clerk to the town solicitor, a Mr. Lindsey, rapidly becomes embroiled in mystery death and intrigue. Mr. Lindsey and Hugh track this strange killing over the next several weeks. On several occasions Hugh comes within a hands breadth of death and once even closer. There’s plenty of intrigue with more than one twist throughout.

The good? The book is engrossing and brings out plenty of morals. The author emphasizes personal discernment, responsibility, importance of justice and a good character and so on. Intriguingly, the father of Hugh’s fiancee, prohibits them from being married for several more years. He wants to see Hugh better established and the lovers accept that judgment. I can’t see THAT being very popular anymore.

Overall, I had no complaints with the story. There were no objectionable elements that should discourage anyone from reading the book. If I had any complaints they would revolve around the writing style or plot structure, and to be honest, nothing stands out as worth mentioning. I wouldn’t say to drop everything to read this story, but you could do much worse. If you need some light reading, then by all means grab this and enjoy.

Audiobook and Text

Tags: classic, dead, dead men's money, enjoy, Fletcher, Matt Gardenghi, men, money, novel, read, youth