Overview/Explanation of American Economic History from a Free Market/Austrian perspective

Miscellaneous History
1

I hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Many times on-line when trying to defend the free market economy, others use events from the past to try to ‘prove’ it doesn’t work. While I am not ignorant of american history, they are usually refering to events I really don’t recall from my high school history classes, and am at a loss to respond. I know that if I go read ‘standard’ works they will probably give an anti-capitalism slant on things, and want to find a work (or several) which can be accessable to an intelligent layman (college educationed, but not an expert in economics, etc) on this.

Kind of looking for works that will answer things such as:

  • attempts at setting up central banks in the past and why they weren’t a good idea.

  • explanation of the various ‘panics’ and ‘crashes’ of the past, especially ones I hear occured in the 1800s.

  • explanation of the ‘robber barons’ and why they really weren’t

  • claims that ‘laissez faire’ was prevalent in the US economy in the 1800s and into the early 1900s, until ‘reigned in’ by regulation ushered in by FDR, etc.

  • (tied to the above) when exactly did regulation and other attempts at the US government begining, prehaps with an overview of what existed before FDR

  • good explanation of the Great Depression and how government intervention (and the Fed) played into this. (am aware of Rothbard’s work on the American Great Depression, but have not tackled).

So I’m looking for works, say along the lines of the PIG to Capitalism (which I have) or DiLorenzo’s How Capitalism Saved America (which I don’t yet have).

Any recommendations?

Thanks

Michael B

2

Look at the first central bank of the US (ended just before the War of 1812) and the second central bank of the US (ended by Andrew Jackson). Originally, the central banks were given a 20 year charter. The Federal Reserve was given an indefinite charter. Do you really think the Federal Reserve could have had its charter renewed during the Great Depression.

The first two central banks were an obvious disaster. They created boom/bust cycles. At that time, politicians had enough economic literacy to realize they’d been conned. In the present, politicians are mostly completely ignorant of economics.

After the Civil War, the banking system was essentially nationalized via regulations. In the late 1880s, there was a letter where the big banks agreed to collude and cease issuing loans to farmers. The money supply crashed, causing a recession. They lost their farms when they were unable to repay their loans.

Before the Federal Reserve, large banks colluded to create boom/bust cycles. After the Federal Reserve was created, banks were forced to collude via the Federal Reserve monetary policy.

President Lincoln issued greenbacks to finance the Civil War (credit-based money) rather than borrowing from the bankers at extortionate interest rates. Some people say that this is the reason Lincoln was assassinated. Lincoln was planning to finance reconstruction via more Greenback issues, which would break the bankers’ monetary monopoly.

As a counter-example to laissez faire, consider railroads. The railroads were built by politically connected insiders. Via eminent domain, they received a monopoly to operate the railroads. The railroad monopoly then allowed them to develop monopolies in other industries. There never was a true free market.

In the late 19th century, the Supreme Court legalized corporations. Corporations were granted the right to own property and enforce contracts. This made it easier to manage large business and rake in State subsidies.

All regulations always are subsidies to the people who write them. For example, the USA adopted and dropped a bimetallic gold/silver standard, but the bimetallic standard overvalued silver. Insiders bought/sold silver before the bimetallic standard was adopted/dropped.

The Great Depression was 100% caused by the Federal Reserve.

There’s some good bits on my blog and via Googling. Regrettably, any mainstream information source will merely parrot the lies you learned in school.

3

Wow, can’t believe I missed this and it only got one response.

Rothbard was a great economic historian, you can refer to the following works, available at Mises for free in various digital mediums and in print at the Store.

America’s Great Depression

Free: http://mises.org/rothbard/agd.pdf

Print: http://store.mises.org/Americas-Great-Depression-P63.aspx

History of Money & Banking in the United States

Free: http://mises.org/books/historyofmoney.pdf

Print: http://store.mises.org/History-of-Money-and-Banking-in-the-United-States–P191.aspx

The Case Against The FED

Free: http://mises.org/books/fed.pdf

Print: http://store.mises.org/Case-Against-the-Fed-The-P69.aspx

Panic of 1907
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