This is G. Edward Griffin at his best in a talk he gave more than 10 years ago on the "Creature from Jekyll Island" - the Federal Reserve Bank. Don't think that the Bank of England is any different. The fed was modelled on the BoE.

I just read an article that I think is the best explanation of statist arrogance I've come across. It's background is two essays; one by Mises on why socialists can't calculate and the other by Hayek on the pretense of knowledge. This article is short and easy to understand. It uses Obama as the example but it applies to all who would know best.

It also contains a great Rothbard quote, "It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."

I've put this under the category of "economics" but could just as relevantly put it under "politics" or "bottom feeders".

Why? Because "bottom feeders" is a good description of those who deliberately push the myths of the Great Depression - "Hoover believed in laissez-faire" "It was a failure of the free market and FDR saved the day" etc. And "politics" because well it is a synonym for "bottom feeders".

It isn't just dry economic analysis but includes some great quotes from people like HL Mencken.

Here is a link to one of the best books (free pdf download) on the myths of the Great Depression.

And here is a link to a page that has the whole thing as an audio book.

It is written by Lawrence W. Reed who is now with FEE

I don't recognise the speaker, if you do please let me know in the comments, but this is another simply, logically and warmly delivered lecture that exposes the "caring" political class of our age.

This is a link to a very short, concise and easy to understand explanation of the cause and cure for inflation. It was written by Henry Hazlitt who was also the author of a great book which is also concise and easy to understand called "Economics in One Lesson".

Walt Williams again. If a white man, such as Walter Block - see below, had given such a talk he would have been branded a racist and a sexist. If you watch both videos you will find that is indeed what happened.

This guy is warm, funny, sane and well worth listening to.

This is an incredibly good talk on slavery and many other things. It is really good on economics and the role played by the state. It is from the FEE archives.

Can a talk about economics be entertaining? Can a talk about the current economic mess and the insanities of governments make you smile?

When it's Peter Schiff giving the talk the answer is most certainly yes.

I used to think so. All those graphs and formulae. But that isn't real economics which enables us to understand how the world works and why we have most of the problems we have.

Lew Rockwell explains it very well here and links to some classic writing by Mises that needs to be promoted to all inteligent people.

This is a great talk from Murray Rothbard about the history of the Austrian school of economics. It covers a huge field in less than one hour and is a really good introduction to the subject. You can find out a lot more by going to mises.org.

This is a graphic ilustration of the current US inflation machine. We have one here too maybe not as big but just as damaging as we have a smaller economic base. This should be food for thought to those who think that generating money with a printing press to pay for pork works better than production or real needed and wanted goods and services.

The most important point about this isn't how bad it is going to get which is plenty, but what the solution is. Notice what happens when money isn't tied to a valuable commodity. Hat tip to G. Edward Griffin.

Happy Christmas by the way.

This is a rocket ride through the basics of Austrian Economics by Geroge Reisman. It is just one of hundreds of fabulous lectures available free at mises.org

This includes a terrific analysis of the anti tobacco industry by Tom DiLorenzo that explains why I altered the focus of this blog from the single issue of the anti tobacco industry against property rights to the more general issue of the State and it's supporters against any kind of free life on Earth.

Idee Fix Warning: If your level of cynicism regarding the State is low you may find this challenging.

This is one of the best talks I've ever heard on the subject as a brief introduction. It is really a brief introduction to economics but couched in such a way that it will get the attention of anyone who is at least half awake. The title of the talk may seem to be provocative but I don't think it was meant that way. I think it was just a statement of fact. It isn't even an exaggeration which was how I thought it was at first. It is called "Everything you love you owe to capitalism". Yes I am being a little provocative in my remarks about it. I wish to provoke you into listening to it. Take a half hour in a quiet space and have a listen.

This is a very cool book. It is called "The Ethics of Money Production" and is all about where money comes from. When my father used to tell me that money doesn't grow on trees he was trying to tell me that it comes in exchange for work or other valuables. How wrong he was when it comes to looking at where fiat money comes from.

It probably isn't very practical to read it from here but you can download it as a pdf from the menu below.

We are living in what the Chinese proverb calls "interesting times".

Fortunately there is good analysis about what is going on. For a very good start read this article by Lew Rockwell.

This is an excellent piece explaining the Gold Standard and the current state of the US and UK economies. Published in the Telegraph. It doesn't mention Ron Paul but it does state his arguments very well.

Our great rulers are caring beyond the call of duty.

People like Jasmin Alibhai-Brown appear to believe white English people would be assaulting and killing members of ethnic minorities were it not for the restraining power of race relations law.

Groups like ASH believe the only reason British pubs did not go smoke free before July 1st is because there hadn't been a law to "enable" them. They also help poor addicted smokers quit the habit they themselves despise by requesting that government increase tobacco taxes.

I'm sure you could think of other sterling examples. Let me know in the comments.

Doesn't it make you feel all warm inside?

Show some appreciation this weekend.

Fundamental to what I am about to say is the concept of a free market. Governments and special interest groups hate free markets and do everything they can to make them seem evil in the "public" mind. Why are free markets hated so much by such people? I'll answer that at the end of this piece but there is a good chance you will have guessed it before then. The propaganda against free markets has been churned out by the ton for more than a hundred years so it would be surprising to find...

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