The Twofold Roots of the Great Depression: Inflationism and Intervention - Lionel Robbins. [From The Burden of Plenty (1935), edited By Graham Hutton.]
I want to start by saying something about the phrase "poverty in plenty" of which we hear so much. I cannot help thinking that it may be misleading to some readers. The object of this series is to explain why the economic machine sometimes produces so much less than it could produce, in spite of the fact that so many people consume so much less than they could consume. To make this vivid it has been thought proper to describe this as a problem of poverty in the midst of plenty.
And when we think of the characteristic symptoms of a slump in trade — the granaries full of corn that remains unsold, the factories closed, and the great ships lying idle — when we think of these, the title seems apt enough. But all the same if it leads you to suppose that if the slump were over and the machines once more running at a normal pace, the problem of poverty would be solved, it will foster a very grave delusion. Comment on the blog. Notes. How to Return to the Gold Standard.
NOVEMBER 01, 1995 by BETTINA BIEN GREAVES There is no reason, technically or economically, why the world today, even with its countless wide-ranging and complex commercial transactions, could not return to the gold standard and operate with gold money.
The major obstacle is ideological. Many people believe that it would be impossible to return to the gold standard—Never! There are just too many people in the world, they say, and the economy is too complex. Many others look on a return to the gold standard as an almost magical solution to today’s major problems—big government, the welfare state, and inflation. Certainly if the United States went on a gold standard, it would have to carry out many reforms.
Let’s consider possible ways for transforming our present paper and credit monetary system, based on fractional reserve banking, into a gold standard. Several methods have been suggested for returning to a gold standard. Returning to Gold at an Artificially High Rate Fifth: The U.S. 1. Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire - Joseph R. Peden. [This is a transcript of Professor Joseph Peden's 50-minute lecture "Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire," given at the Seminar on Money and Government in Houston, Texas, on October 27, 1984.
The original audio recording is available as a free MP3 download.] Two centuries ago, in 1776, there were two books published in England, both of which are read avidly today. One of them was Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and the other was Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon's multivolume work is the tale of a state that survived for twelve centuries in the West and for another thousand years in the East, at Constantinople.
Gibbon, in looking at this phenomenon, commented that the wonder was not that the Roman Empire had fallen, but rather that it had lasted so long. I've been asked to speak on the theme of Roman history, particularly the problem of inflation and its impact. Monetary, fiscal, military, political, and economic issues are all very much intertwined. I had no idea that the Fed was so wonderful!