Tuesday 30th September, 2008.
Anglo-American finance ministers and central bankers, like little Dutch boys, try desperately to plug leaks in the bursting dyke that is the international financial system. In the US, treasury secretary Hank Paulson hoped for $700bn to plug the gaping hole in Wall Street’s banks. In the UK, the government is not just plugging holes, but setting aside competition rules to encourage the monopolisation of finance.
I’d be really useful if you could mention which policies you are talking about (the ones attributable to
Hayek or Friedman) and some reference or argument about how they are discredited.
In the article you seem to ignore the housing and share
market bubble. These bubbles seem to have happened because of “easy money”. It’s not obvious to me that this should be solved with more inflation
i.e. “easier money”.
Something is definitely wrong with the way interest rates are currently set. Instead of looking merely at consumer
prices, if the central banks looked at all prices it might help. They could also look directly at the level of debt. A gold standard (or fixed fiat
money) has a natural constraint and so it more naturally regulated. I would love to read about criticisms of the gold standard and Austrian
economics as this is what I am finding most palatable at the moment.