The Books I Used To Write the Second-Longest Paper I Ever Wrote

When I was a senior in college, I wrote the second-longest essay of my life -- and it wasn't for a class. It was for a cash prize of $5,000.

In December 2009, I heard about the Atlas Sound Money Project Essay and, broke as the economy, I jumped for the cash prize. I did not win the first prize. A kid from Dartmouth did, if my memory serves me correctly. I also did not win the one of the two second prizes ($1,000), or one of the three third prizes ($500).

I had to choose between the following topics:

Essay Topics:

- “Money and the Free Society: Can Money Exist Outside of the State?”
- “The Ethical Implications of Monetary Manipulation”
- “Monetary Policy and the Rule of Law in the United States”

I choose the last one.

But cleaning up my desk this evening (how it surfaced to my desk 4 years later, I have no idea), I decided to discard the paper I had notes on and preserve the memory through this blog post.

Here are the books I used to write the 20-page essay, which was supposed to be "accessible to the educated laymen, but rigorous enough as to be used in college and university courses." That had my writing style written all over it.

Economics Reading List for Sound Money Essay 

-The Alpha Strategy

-How the Fed Works (50 pages)

-Essentials of Economics

-Gold Wars

-Honest Money (Esp. Biblical Monetary System)

-Housing Boom and Bust

These aren't the only sources I used. I also completed Robert P. Murphy's "Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism," some excerpts from some newsletters I was receiving at the time, and more. Besides the Murphy book, only other books I read in their entirety for this essay was "The Alpha Strategy" (which I have offered free of charge since November 2009), "Gold Wars," "Honest Money." I skimmed through the Sowell Book. I probably didn't cite the Faustino Ballve book nor the How the Fed Works book.

I also have some handwritten notes on this paper, such as "banks are good - fractional reserve isn't," "sell back gold to the public," "FDIC out of commission," "FED = Insurance Agency," "prevent recessions," "prices of goods will fall," "gov = tax in gold," " = pay in gold," and "no government mandate for gold-only. Gold is standard, but other metals are usuable (sic)." Corresponding page numbers were in parentheses next to these notes.

The Atlas Foundation's original blog post announcing the competition was published on December 2, 2009. The deadline to submit the essay was January 15, 2010.  You can read the blog description here.

I'll publish the essay on a later date. 

What Keeping Confidence in the U.S. Dollar is all About

Even the outside world (countries outside of the U.S.) have vested interest in keeping confidence in the U.S. dollar high. The main reason is that "at the moment the bulk of the monetary reserves of central banks across the world consist mainly of dollars and US Treasuries."

Because of decades of exporting our inflation to other countries, we have merely pushed off a total decline in the value of our currency. So what is keeping confidence in our dollar now?

Dr. Sander O. Boon explains:

The dollar reserves retain their value as long as the American economy keeps on performing well enough. But when confidence in the American economy crumbles, so does the value of dollar denominated assets, once investors start selling some of them off. The world fears losing its confidence in the dollar, as it would be a very costly affair for the holders of these assets. You could also try to describe the situation as follows: as long as your neighbour keeps his job, the value of your own house remains intact. This is the very fragile basis on which our entire monetary system has been built.

Yikes!

Ron Paul on Money and Our Economy

"To reclaim our dollar and our economy, Americans must oppose central banking per se. Fiat currencies cannot be “reformed” or “managed.” They are fundamentally subject to ruinous debasement courtesy of the political and economic ruling class. History shows that this is true in all nations at all times." Ron Paul, The World Shorts the Dollar

To listen to the entire article of which this passage was excerpted from, click here.

Video: Reversal Tuesday, jobs, Fed critics, Bernanke, SchiffRadio.com

Despite the fact that last week, when the world received news that the Federal Reserve would be rejecting sound economic sense (for the umpteenth time) and begin QE2 (or the second dose of Quantitative Easing) to stimulate the economy, it is great to know that the world is waking up to the disaster of Federal Reserve monetary policy. Japan, China, Germany, and a host of other leaders, and even critics within the Federal Reserve itself, are against the new injection of money into the economy - and rightly so!

In this latest video by Peter Schiff, he criticizes the Fed and humorously points out their only solution to crises: inflate a burst bubble by printing up more money and lowering interest rates. Schiff addresses the nonsense:

Didn't we just blow two bubbles? According to Ben Bernanke we now need a new stock market bubble to cure the recession caused by the housing bubble which was created because the Fed tried to cure the recession caused by the bursting of the previous stock market bubble. So is this it? Is this all they know? Serial bubble blowing forever creating bubbles?

Because people within the Fed are distancing themselves from Ben Bernanke, I must say that the genius behind this new plan is looking lonely in his decision, and he is looking quite clueless. But the world isn't. The other good news is that concerns about inflation may bring a rise to new gold standard. This is a step in the right direction. Next, we Austrians hope, 100 percent reserve Banking.

Ben Bernanke Admits He is a Central Planner

I encourage EVERYONE who visits my blog to watch this supremely revealing video.

Ben Bernanke, the FED chairman, and one of the men prolonging our current economic crisis, is a SELF-ADMITTED CENTRAL PLANNER. Socialism over in Russia failed for a reason. As Thomas E. Woods once explained, socialism in Russia involved the planning of the steel industries. In America we have a Federal Reserve that plans interest rates and produces dollars.

After you watch the video, feel free to download these short documents called "The Cliches of Socialism." There are plenty of them. In fact, there are 76.

Another good book to download is the "Inflation Primer" offered by the Ludwig Von Mises institute.

BONUS: Video critiquing socialism from a Biblical worldview.