What Has Government Done to Our Money?

Here the reader will find a short introduction to what money is in the first place (and how it arises on a free market); how fiat currency makes inflation possible and allows the State to steal funds without anybody noticing; and what sound monetary policy would look like in the unlikely event that the State can ever be persuaded to take its fingers out of the pie. As is typical of Rothbard, the whole is presented with clarity, rigor, and wit.

Readers who like what they find here may want to go on to Ludwig von Mises's _Theory of Money and Credit_ -- which Rothbard describes somewhere as the best book ever on monetary theory.


Must Read!   March 26, 1999
Scott A. Kjar (Duluth MN USA)
29 out of 30 found this review helpful

I teach a one-quarter course in economic principles, and I always use this wonderful little book for a portion of it. Although the book is not very long, and Rothbard's style is extremely readable, he packs a lot of information and perspective into it. My students have an overall high opinion of this book (and the predictable low opinion of the main text book). No previous background or knowledge of money, monetary history, or economics is required to read and understand this great work. Rothbard starts in a "Robinson Crusoe" world, that is, a world in which Crusoe is the only person. He then adds more people, and shows how money arises, and exactly what money is (and what it is NOT!). I not only highly recommend it, I REQUIRE it for my students.


A Gem   November 30, 2002
Steve Jackson (New England)
22 out of 22 found this review helpful

"What Has Government Done to Our Money" is an excellent introduction to the consistent libertarian view of money; namely, that government need not intervene in a nation's monetary life at all (either by printing money or regulating banks). In a relatively short number of pages, Rothbard explains money, inflation, banking, and the history of monetary policy. Rothbard notes that the dream of the banksters is a single currency that can be inflated at will. With the rise of the EU and the Euro, we are getting closer to that day.

Don't stop with this book -- be sure to get Rothbard's "A History of Money and Banking in the US" and also "The Mystery of Banking."


Impeccable for what it is !   March 23, 2000
Joseph L. Brady (Lancaster, CA United States)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

This book should be REQUIRED reading at the high school level if not earlier. There is hardly any clearer explanation of money (real) and the fiat system that we now suffer under. I have read much the same thing in other books, usually covered in one chapter as part of a larger subject (such as the workings of the FED), but this short tome covers the subject without any fluff, yet thoroughly enough to give the beginner a sound grounding. It was a good refresher for myself. Mr.Rothbard's arguments for sound money are of impeccable logic. His call for a return to gold is now a cry in the wilderness, for most Americans, and apparently some Australians have been so brainwashed in hardly more than a generation that they are willing to accept their fate under a false system. I only wish that Mr. Rothbard had given more historical parallels in his book. As I recall, Roman money was being debased during their decline! All in all, this is a book not to be missed. And I highly recommend any of Rothbard's works.


You have to read it to believe it   January 28, 2002
Abolaji Ogunshola (CT)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

This book is simply a classic, and I think that there is little in it that will be overturned by further discoveries about the nature of money. Of course, even if this was to happen, the book will remain one of the best and clearest introductions to the topic of money. The book is also a great example of expository and didactic prose, so it can also be read in that context.

In this book, Rothbard discusses the history and nature of money, and by doing both, explains to the reader what is wrong with the monetary system that the world operates on today. Parts of his writing will be familiar to anyone who has taken a course in economics where money was discussed. However, the more subtle facts about money (the money regression theorem, Gresham's Law, government intereference, the reasons he gives for the government's renunciation of the gold standard etc.) will be new and interesting territory for many readers. Of course, if the ideas of this book are read and combined with the other ideas espoused by Austrian Economics, of which the author was a great proponent, then the truth and coherence of his arguments are very strong.

I strongly recommend this book. Even those (like me) who do not agree with Rothbard's anarchism will find a lot in it that is good.