Essential Reading

The true story of progress for the human race with acute understanding of the fundamental causes: freedom and capitalism, which led to unimaginable creativity and the spreading and creation of wealth, which has not occurred under any other system.

This is the bible on bubbles. The Mississippi Scheme, the South Sea Bubble and the Tulipomania chapters deal not only with human emotions that result in bubbles but also the inflation that is necessary for bubbles to happen.

Rueff, a financial advisor to Charles de Gaulle when he was president of France, played a significant role in forcing Nixon to abandon the gold exchange standard in 1971. France and other European nations were redeeming U.S. dollars at a rate that threatened U.S. gold reserves. The title reveals what the book covers.

Most copies of this book sell at collector prices. Look for pdf copies on the Internet.

Mises shows how money had its origin in the market, and how its value is based on its usefulness as a commodity in exchange. In a step-by-step manner, Mises presents the case for sound money with no inflation, and presents the beginnings of a full-scale business cycle theory.

Here’s what the Ludwig von Mises Institute says about this book: the most important book on political economy you will ever own. It was (and remains) the most comprehensive, systematic, forthright, and powerful defense of the economics of liberty ever written.

Not a book on money and economics but a refutation to government “planning.” This is a classic, a must read for members of the liberty movement.

Here’s what the cover of the 1976 edition says: “A classic warning against the dangers to freedom inherent in social planning.” Did anyone notice how many liberties we lost with the passing of Obamacare?

This tome reads like a Robert Ludlum novel while documenting all relevant details. Want to be an expert on the Fed? Read this is the book. (Actually, Murray Rothbard’s The Origins of the Federal Reserve provides the same information, but Griffin’s approach makes The Creature an enjoyable read. And, you have to admit that the title is brilliant!)

Don’t let the 588 pages scare you. Griffin brilliantly included previews and summaries for all chapters, which means that the book need not be read from start to finish but can be read by selected chapters.

If not Rothbard’s magnum opus, certainly his most controversial book because it dismisses the myth that Roosevelt’s New Deal lift us out of the Great Depression. This book is more about economics than money; it is a great read.

Here’s what the Ludwig von Mises Institute says about this scholarly treatise: Rothbard traces inflations, banking panics, and money meltdowns from the Colonial Period through the mid-20th century to show how government’s systematic war on sound money is the hidden force behind nearly all major economic calamities in American history. Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical vigor.

This is not the first book you want to read on money, but it may be the last to you have to read to be completely convinced that of the nefariousness of fractional reserve banking and paper money.

This book could have been titled Governments Wars on Gold because it discusses why governments hate gold. Some copies of this book sell at collector prices.

A free-market look at why the stock market collapsed, the economy tanked and government bailouts will make things worse. A New York Times bestseller.

Of the books on this list, this one is the most recently published and, therefore, is the most “timely.” Other recently published books on this list include Ron Paul’s End the Fed and Thomas Woods’ Meltdown.

The Dollar Meltdown’s subtitle reveals the theme: Surviving the impending currency crisis with gold, oil, and other unconventional investments. This book made the New York Times bestseller list.

Another scholar’s condemnation of inflation. This one sentence from the book should make you want to read it: Whoever ventures to speak kindly of gold or the gold standard places his good name and professional reputation in great jeopardy.

This book is chapter two in Rothbard’s History of Money and Banking. Rothbard reveals that the Fed did not originate as a response to national need, as was publicized, but was established by government officials and large financial/banking interests for their own benefit, along with paid-for economists gave the scheme a scientific patina.

Originally, intended to be a rewrite of the 1960 What You Should Know About Inflation, this book not only clarify just what inflation is but also dispels Establishment-promoted notions that someone other than the Fed and fractional reserve banking is responsible for inflation.

This book is chapter two in Rothbard’s History of Money and Banking. Rothbard reveals that the Fed did not originate as a response to national need, as was publicized, but was established by government officials and large financial/banking interests for their own benefit, along with paid-for economists gave the scheme a scientific patina.

Paul reveals his understanding of economics in discussing his efforts to promote freedom in America as he confronts statists at every level of government. A New York Times bestseller. When a book on economics makes the Times bestseller list, you know it’s good.

Discusses banking fundamentals, how expanding money supplies in the past have led to booms followed by busts. It concludes with a chapter that dismembers the Fed. (Any discussion today about banking mandates a discussion of the Fed.) If this book had been used as a college text over the last two decades and discussed honestly in classrooms, fractional reserve banking and the Fed would already be history.

If you already have a grasp of money, start with The Mystery of Banking. Still, the other short Rothbard books are better primers.

Although the title, Red and Blue and Broke All Over, suggests that the book is another expose of America’s dire financial state of affairs, that is not the case. Red and Blue inextricably links our prosperity to our liberties and warns that if “solutions” to our existing financial woes and the “War on Terrorism” put still more controls on us, our prosperity will decline as our liberties vanish.

Originally published in 1946 and republished in 1986, this is another Hazlitt classic text that has helped millions of Americans understand basic economics and the free market. Despite the title, this is not a boring read.

Although first published fifty years ago, this book continues to refute the common Establishment positions about inflation. If this book doesn’t convince you that inflation is a money/credit phenomenon, nothing will.

Another Murray Rothbard masterpiece explains the evils of the Fed and fractional reserve banking.

Available bound together as they complement each other.

In this short book, you learn just what money is, what the best form of money is, and most importantly: why governments always move to control money.

Learn why gold, throughout the centuries, has always emerged as the ultimate money and why today the dollar needs to be backed 100% by gold.