----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 2:22
AM
Subject: Re: [SOCIAL CREDIT] another view
on paper currency
Gary North has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a
follower of von
Mises, one of the "Austrian"
economists along with von Hayek. He is
apparently a
Christian fundamentalist. He self-publishes
newsletters, pamphlets and books on Christianity from
the "Austrian"
perspective.
One of his books is *Salvation Through Inflation: the
Economics of
Social Credit*, an anti-social credit
tract.
The book is available on the Internet
http://freebooks.entrewave.com/freebooks/docs/2166_47e.htm
.
This is from the synopsis:
-->One international conservative movement has long
promoted the
idea that inflation is mandatory to save
the capitalist system. The group
is called Social
Credit. Since 1917, defenders of this reform scheme
have offered arguments against free market money,
private banking, and
gold. Many of them have been
fundamentalist Christians. In the 1930's,
they
captured the Canadian province of Alberta and kept
control for a
decade.
In 1949, the great Austrian economist Ludwig Von
Mises wrote then to
refute Social Credit economics is
to refute inflationary policies of every
modern
government. Yet until Salvation Through Inflation, no
book had
challenged the economics of Social Credit
since the 1930's.
Social Credit ideas have spread from England to
Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa. Its
proposed reform resembles the reform
proposals of the
late nineteenth-century's "greenback" movement in the
United States, which still exists in the
"underground" of America's
far right.
Salvation Through Inflation provides a comprehensive
but easy-to-read
refutation of these ideas. It
invokes the Bible and Austrian economic
analysis to
challenge the economics of Social Credit.<--
The "Austrians" take the most extreme position in the
tradition of
classical economics.
They have purloined for themselves the title
"libertarian."
The "Austrians" were decisively influential in
discrediting Douglas's
theories with economists.
After Hayek's refutation in his paper "The
Paradox of
Saving" that was reprinted in his book, *Prices and
Production*, in the early 1930s--Douglas's theories
no longer were
discussed by economists. Keynes, who
at the time was referencing
Douglas favorably in his
graduate lectures, was reduced to demoting his
rank
from Major to Private by the time of his *General
Theory*.
Hayek's refutation had more to do with the
ultimate destruction of the
social credit movement
that the latter charge of anti-Semitism.
After all,
Hayek was himself anti-Semitic. And Keynes was more
anti-Semitic than Douglas.
Hayek's refutation is easily refuted, however.
Keep in mind that in that time neither accounting nor
calculus were
required elements in the economists'
curriculum--so Douglas, who used both
in his
analysis, was beyond their comprehension.
It is ironic that some social crediters carry Hayek's
*Road to Serfdom*
on their reading lists.
--
--------- Original Message ---------
| DATE: Thu, 29 May 2003 17:38:56 |
| From: Keith Wilde
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> |
| To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Cc: |
Thanks for this notification. I read the first
chapter of North's Mises book and found it persuasive.
Keith
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 12:22
PM
Subject: [SOCIAL CREDIT] another view
on paper currency
I don't like what the
following article suggests, but that doesn't make it less
provocative....
"THE
MYTH OF THE GOLD STANDARD"
____________________________________________________________
Get
advanced SPAM filtering on Webmail or POP Mail ... Get Lycos Mail!
Login To Lycos
Mail
