New Works in literature
The feed for this section of the site appears on the front page and elsewhere but still, just so you know:
Exchange, Prices, and Production in Hyper-Inflation Germany 1920-1923, by Frank Graham. This book has been heavily cited in Austrian literature. Sean Corrigan suggested it for Mises.org. Beyond that I would like to know more.
Early Speculative Bubbles and Increases in the Supply of Money, by Doug French. This is a masters thesis under the direction of Rothbard. It draws attention to the underlying cause of otherwise famous bubbles such as Tulipmania and the South Sea.
Comments (2)
Ohhh Henry
Something in Mr. French's description of the Tulip Bubble has me confused. He says that the rampant increase in money supply and the resulting bubble was not due to fractional reserve banking, but to the tremendous influx of silver coins to the Dutch bank.
However, a couple of pages earlier he stated that the secretive bank controlled by members of Amsterdam city government, "had allowed certain persons to overdraw their accounts as early as 1657" (quoted from memory). Is this not a type of fractional reserve banking, permitting overdrafts for some, which presumably allowed them to speculate more imprudently than they would have otherwise? Or perhaps this is deemed to be a smaller factor compared to the overall huge influx of bullion.
Also, did the tulip bulb contracts themselves take on the characteristics of "moneyness"? (as I think I have heard certain modern-day contracts such as derivatives and mortgage-backed securities described by Doug Noland) If so, did they have the effect of an inflated money supply, which people assumed would be backed by government when the courts would uphold the contracts, i.e. use police and prisons to force the counter parties to pay up to the full value of the contracts?
Published: August 20, 2008 2:34 PM
Aakash
It's been awhile since I've been back to Mises Blog... And I see that, once again, your site has been re-designed (which I've addressed before, and incidentally, even before that - like back in 2001 or 2002). I hope that this new layout works well (though I am almost always reluctant to see change). One change that we should be grateful for, in regards to this site however, is the addition of new content... Especially full texts.
I remember that, with the prior site design, one challenge was finding the link to a good page here, which compiled all of the audio books available here (or perhaps it was the audio shows [like Podcasts] which were difficult to find, all on one page). With the current design, is there one page that I can go to, where we can find all the books that we can "read" - without having to move our eyes?
[I'm already having to get new glasses, due in part to being behind this laptop screen so much... (Perhaps others have been having the same issue; I was glad to see this, a little earlier...) - So those mp3s could come in quite useful - as other commenters here, and users of Mises.org, have found as well.]
Published: August 21, 2008 3:37 AM