I just finished reading America’s Great Depression by Murray Rothbard - I want to say, “wow” but I am just not surprised anymore by how amazing all of Rothbard’s works are! Anyway, I loved the book and learned a lot from it. However, there were a couple concepts I am a bit mixed up on and I’m hoping somebody here can give me a quick clarification. Rothbard talks about the Fed increasing bank reserves through “bills bought” and “bills discounted”. I am under the impression that when he refers to bills bought he means bank acceptances, which to my understanding are essentially just purchases of bank paper at a certain rate. Bills discounted I think are the “discount rate” which the Fed will lend to banks at. I don’t really see any substantial difference here, except maybe that acceptances (bills bought), at least during the period Rothbard is discussing, were significantly foreign whereas bills discounted were domestic? Ok, I’m going to stop here I’m confused haha. Any help would be appreciated thank you in advance!
In liberty,
Chris