Peter's Blog

Free-marketers are quick (and correct) to blame the Fed for America’s monetary troubles. But as bad as the Federal Reserve is, other countries, like Portugal, have corrupt central banks that rival the Fed in its corporatism, inflationism, and irresponsibility. The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily […]

Treasury Secretary Bessent recently expressed displeasure with the Fed, implying that he’s interested in investigating whether or not the Fed is successful in promoting price stability. If Bessent digs deep enough, he’ll realize that the Fed has been both utterly unsuccessful and damaging to the economy.

If Donald Trump has his way and recent reports are accurate, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is considering stepping down from his position. While extremely rare, Fed Chairs resigning before the end of their term isn’t entirely unheard of. Powell’s obligations would ordinarily extend to May 2026.

One of the long-touted goals of central banking is “price stability,” which, in the minds of central bankers, means low and continuous inflation. Even if this goal wasn’t cover for inflationist policy, it’d still be important to note that “price stability” is actually an unachievable goal when properly understood.

Some free-marketers mistakenly believe that the Federal Reserve would be more effective if it operated in a different political environment or had more resources to control the monetary supply. Instead, as the Austrian school emphasizes, the problem is with central banking per se. Central planning never works, especially when the planning is over the money […]

The Austrian School of Economics demonstrates how money can emerge organically from trade and does not require a government to create or manage it. The reality is that, once governments grow large enough, they seek out control of money to further fund and finance their nefarious ends.

This year’s April Fools joke from the Federal Reserve is the same this year as every other:  Pretending that a small group of unelected academics can micromanage the economy to create an ideal balance between employment, inflation, and cost of borrowing. The Fed wants to control the economy, but all it achieves is distortion. And […]

Bitcoiners are salivating at the idea of the Trump administration pumping their holdings by declaring a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” where the government pledges to hold onto its current stash or, in another version, start buying more bitcoin and using it to pay down the debt. 

Free banking is seen by many as something that should be left in 18th century Scotland. Free banking is where each bank issues their own note that is redeemable for a certain amount of a commodity, typically gold. The value of the note is determined by the assessed probability that that bank will indeed be […]

Conventional wisdom says that the government can help (or is even required to) stimulate the economy, especially during a recession. As mounting evidence grows for a recession happening right now, it’s worth examining how this conventional wisdom is completely wrong and backwards. The government is typically the primary cause of recessions.