Last Updated: Oct 22nd, 2010 - 15:35:08 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 30 March 2007 Thought for the Day It is inevitable that governments running money systems not backed by a gold standard - fiat currencies - will be tempted to print more money than they should. In the western world this extra cash is sloshing into the property market raising prices as demand increases. America has a sub-prime market lending 100% to house buyers with less than salubrious credit records. This market is now in meltdown. Dozens of lending institutions are now in bankruptcy and thousands are losing their homes. Will this upset the rest of America's housing market? Will there be repercussions around the world? What will happen in New Zealand? My guess is that the government will do something to fix the problem. This will make it worse. Mar 28, 2007, 10:02 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 30 March 2007 Money and Inflation: The Tendency to Deny Reality Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to cheque. But people today use the term "inflation" to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation. As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar. As long as this terminological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation. Ludwig von Mises Mar 28, 2007, 11:32 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 30 March 2007 Ponzificating Is the financial system a confidence trick? Mar 19, 2007, 16:59 Newsletters : 2007 Newsletters : 30 March 2007 Truth Needs Champions In my search for the reasons behind New Zealand's decline from the very top of the world wide wealth lists to still be sliding downwards past number 40 I have looked for economic reasons. My search of economic thinking has led me to the Austrian School of Economics and the basic thinking of its founder Ludwig von Mises. I found his arguments much more pursuasive than those of many economists writing today. Having read Brian Easton's writings in the Listener it is very clear that illogical and ad hominen economic argument must arise from lack of understanding of basic truths and sound reasoning. Yet we are still governed by people who think the same way. To climb back up that slippery poverty slope we must be led by politicians with sound economic understanding who are not afraid to tell the truth to the population. We don't have to work harder we just need to work smarter and not let our leaders waste the efforts we make. This talk was delivered at the Grove City College conference on The Legacy of Ludwig von Mises, February 24, 2007. I hope you find it interesting. Mar 6, 2007, 11:50