• "Well written, well researched, and the thesis put forth is well argued.... Woods has opened up an area of historical analysis that should invite further study."
    -Journal of American History

  • "During these times that challenge our freedoms there is no one more qualified to make U.S. history relevant to the fight against big government than Thomas Woods."
    -Barry Goldwater Jr.
    Former Member of Congress

  • "I strongly recommend Woods's work."
    -The Honorable Ron Paul,
    U.S. House of Representatives

  • "Written with great clarity and fluency, making the complex philosophical and theological concepts approachable."
    -Journal of American Studies

  • "A must-read."
    -Barron's

  • "An excellent reading source for anyone interested in financial markets, and much more so for anyone interested in learning about capitalism without all the misinterpretations being thrown about in the financial media."
    -Asia Times

  • "Provocative, well-written, and deserves to be read."
    -Catholic Historical Review

  • "An engaging and important contribution to scholarship on the history of American Catholicism."
    -Journal of the Historical Society

  • "Woods and [co-author Kevin] Gutzman appeal to both left and right in this constitutionalist jeremiad…. The authors' exegeses of the Constitution and court decisions, heavy on original intent arguments, are lucid and telling."
    -Publishers Weekly

  • "A marvelous read. Every chapter taught me something new and unexpected."
    -Tom Bethell, senior editor,
    The American Spectator

  • "The hottest book today is Meltdown, by my friend Tom Woods."
    -Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst,
    FOX News Channel

  • "Should be required reading."
    -Economic Affairs (London)

  • "Woods, one of the best classical liberal [libertarian] scholars of his generation, has once more placed us in his debt with this lucid and tightly argued book."
    -David Gordon, The Mises Review

  • "Tom Woods is one of my dearest allies in the struggle against wrong-headed and dangerous economic policy."
    -Peter Schiff

The Fed: All Sunshine and Lollipops

Here’s my latest article, dealing with common objections to abolishing the Fed — in particular, the claim that things were horrendous before the Fed and are much more stable now.  I develop this theme at much greater length in chapter 4 of Rollback, my new book, which the cool people are reading.

Unlearn the Propaganda!

  • http://www.facebook.com/sweisman66 Scott Weisman

    I guess that makes me cool.

    Tom, I just finished it last week and loaned it to a friend. I hope you don’t mind (:-). As I handed it to him, I told him that this book is the red pill (;-).

  • NeilBJ

    Does ending the Fed entail a return to gold and silver? If not how would the money supply be controlled?

  • http://www.facebook.com/sweisman66 Scott Weisman

    Tom, I was just checking out the Wikipedia page on the Panic of 1907, and it had a beautiful confirmation of exactly what Austrian theory says about how interest rates work:

    “When U.S. President Andrew Jackson allowed the charter of the Second Bank of the United States to expire in 1836, the U.S. was without any sort of central bank, and the money supply in New York City fluctuated with the country’s annual agricultural cycle. Each autumn money flowed out of the city as harvests were purchased and—in an effort to attract money back—interest rates were raised. Foreign investors then sent their money to New York to take advantage of the higher rates.”

    Interest rates fluctuating depending on the available savings. How about that!

    It also confirmed what you said about how the more agricultural nature of the economy then was itself a major contribution to many of the crises of the era.

  • http://www.mises.org Mechanized0

    Excellent article Dr. Woods. One of the most interesting aspects of the content of the article is the following:

    “Moreover, the post–Civil War panics in the United States were due in large part to the unit-banking regulations in many states that forbade branch banking of any sort. Confined to a single office, each bank was necessarily fragile and undiversified. Canada experienced none of these panics even though it did not establish a central bank, DiStefano’s trusted panacea, until 1934.”

    It is amusing that DiStefano appears to have never mentioned the above in reference to The Great Depression. If a massive regulatory apparatus is necessary to operate a sound banking system then how did Canada manage to avoid such a pitfall without it?

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