Comments (14)

• André Dorais

  Love the passion! Huerta de Soto explains why fiat money and central planning are unjust and therefore should be considered illegal. As important, he transmits to the audience and viewers his frustration over this huge ripe off and make us feel the same way.

  Published: October 8, 2009 5:39 PM

• Lord Buzungulus, Bringer of the Purple Light

  Three cheers for the heroic Prof. de Soto! It pains me to see how the slimy free bankers have dismissed his superb work over the various debates on this issue over the summer; hopefully Prof de Soto will respond at some point.

  Published: October 8, 2009 7:50 PM

• Nikolaj

  Lord Buzungulus,

  De Soto already "situated" free bankers in his book (pp. 675-705) very well.

  Published: October 8, 2009 8:54 PM

• Lord Buzungulus, Bringer of the Purple Light

  Nikolaj,

  Love your comments over at the GMU blog, you are definitely fighting the good fight.

  De Soto's work stands on its own merits, to be sure, I'm only saying, given recent statements from Selgin and White in print and online, it would be good for de Soto himself to make an entrance (as Hoppe and esp. Salerno have).

  Published: October 8, 2009 9:33 PM

• axiomata

  Nikolaj-

  Are you aware of any online posting of pages 675-705?

  Published: October 9, 2009 12:28 AM

• newson

  good speech, pretty ordinary sound. maybe a remote mike.

  Published: October 9, 2009 1:09 AM

• More links

  event writeup, video from discussion, audio from lecture, audio from discussion
  Let's see if the filter allows this through if an intelligent and civil sentence is added.

  Published: October 9, 2009 2:37 AM

• Sally C.

  This speech was interesting but I was surprised that Mr. de Soto was not more critical of the ECB and the whole Euro project. Spain and Ireland (and Greece and Portugal and Italy) are in a particularly bad state due to joining the Euro in 1998/9. In all of these countries, short term interest rates were high for decades before joining the Euro. In Ireland, short term interest rates were consistently in double digits before they agreed to join the Euro and I am pretty certain that Peseta interest rates were close to double digits. In the early 1990s, the precursor of the Euro, was the European Monetary System or EMS or 'snake' as it was known. Each potential Euro entrant had to keep their currency in a tight band relative to the other Euro entrants. In 1992, Ireland had to raise their short term interest rates to 17%!! in order to keep the Irish Punt in this currency band. Clearly, Ireland was not ready to join the Euro, but guess what, it happened anyway. By 1998, as Ireland brought down its interest rates in order to converge with the Euro, short term Irish Punt interest rates were 3.3%. Surprise, surprise, over the next ten years, there was an inflation fuelled economic boom in Ireland mainly centred on housing, as cheap credit flowed like there was no tomorrow. The same was true of Spain. The only difference between Spain and Ireland seems to be that the Spanish banking regulators did a better job of restraining bank leverage than the Irish bank regulators, because all the major Irish banks are now bust. The Irish government has effectively guaranteed all of their banks, thereby saddling the Irish people with unbelievable levels of debt going forward. Surely, he should have been more vocal in his criticism of the Euro project.

  Published: October 9, 2009 4:46 AM

• Ireland

  Well, with a call for complete dismantling of all central banks, there's little room for being "more critical" than that. Arguing about which of the bad guys was worse could weaken the main point: They all need to go.
  

  Published: October 9, 2009 5:58 AM

• michalko

  I am from Slovakia and I was lucky enough to be able to personally attend this lecture. This lecture was part of a conservative lecture cycle and several prominent business figures were present as well. One of the best moments was, when professor de Soto said that private banks operating under fractional reserve system are commiting a crime of misappropriation and at that very moment, a CEO of one of the larges commercial banks in Slovakia (Tatrabanka) stood up and left the room for good. It took all the strength I had to not to burst into open laugther.

  Published: October 9, 2009 6:10 AM

• Lord Buzungulus, Bringer of the Purple Light

  Prof. de Soto's magnificent book can
  be downloaded here:

  http://mises.org/books/desoto.pdf

  Published: October 9, 2009 7:00 AM

• Allen Lewis

  de Soto's book (Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles) is one of the most intellectually stimulating things I've ever read. I'm about 100 pages from the end as I write this, and can't wait to get home tonight to finish it.

  Published: October 9, 2009 8:53 AM

• Ireland

  Re banker leaving: What else could he do? Accepting the message would turn his world completely upside down, and for what gain exactly. Walking away from the lecture is a sensible reaction on his part. It will get more interesting once the word spreads and depositors decide to stop enabling these misappropriations.

  Published: October 9, 2009 2:18 PM

• Geoffrey S.

  Huerta de Soto's book was a pleasure to read. If you're interested in monetary theory and the business cycle, you should buy a copy. What's nice for those wanting to buy the book is that it is only $35 now instead of $50.

  Published: October 9, 2009 3:05 PM