The Human Action Podcast

Why Rothbard Thought the Fed Eliminated Market Safeguards Against Bank Inflation

August 22, 2025·1h 12m
Episode Description from the Publisher

In his underappreciated work The Mystery of Banking, Murray Rothbard first explained how a regime of "free banking" would put strict limits on the ability of the private commercial banks to reduce their reserve ratios and inflate the money supply. Then Rothbard showed that the textbook operation of a central bank systematically neutralized the market's safeguards, and paved the way for credit expansion by a cartel of privileged private banks. The Mystery of Banking by Murray N. Rothbard: https://mises.org/HAP514a "How Private Banks Can Create Money, But Not Like the Fed Can" (Human Action Podcast): https://mises.org/HAP514b The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century Get your free copy at https://Mises.org/HAPodFree

Podzilla Summary coming soon

Sign up to get notified when the full AI-powered summary is ready.

Get Free Summaries →

Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.

Get summaries like this every morning.

Free AI-powered recaps of The Human Action Podcast and your other favorite podcasts, delivered to your inbox.

Get Free Summaries →

Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.