Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Ethics of Money Production: Introduction

The Ethics of Money Production, by Jörg Guido Hülsmann.

The book is available here and there is one for download as well. (I am reading the German version, Waltrop und Leipzig 2007, but I will quote and refer to the publicly accessible pdf.)

I didn't have an opportunity to read anything from Hülsmann yet, so this should be my first. The introduction summarizes the literature on the ethical side of the production of money, starting, not surprisingly with Oresme and the School of Salamanca. The author notes, while looking on other resources, up to the most recent ones, that there is a definite lack of serious work on this topic.

A notable exception is the Austrian School of Economics, particularly that of Mises and Rothbard, which he intends to draw heavily from. As a side note, while tracing the connection of this school to the scholastics, he puts down the following definition or characterization:
"Austrians share the scholastic belief that there is no such thing as an economic science dealing with autonomous variables. Economic problems are aspects of larger social phenomena; and it is most expedient to deal with them as such, rather than to analyze them in some twisted separation." (p.12)

This is an extremely brief, yet poignant summary of the argument about the use of the scientific method in economics.

The autor also goes through the available Christian literature on the topic, notes the few bright points and clearly intends to keep Christian morals as an important part of the analysis. It is a book on ethics, after all.

Up until now was the writing quite scholarly, but accessible, it is a small bok with under 300 pages. It has also a very "friendly" tone, in the way it praises valuable sources and doesn't detract the lacking ones. It notes very lightly , what others would rightfully spew fire on:
"Economists relish in pointing out the importance of economic incentives in the determination of human behavior. While virtually no section of society has escaped their scathing criticism, until very recently few of them have been concerned about their own incentives. Yet the facts are plain: championing government involvement in money and banking pays the bills; promoting the opposite agenda shuts the doors to an academic career. No consistent economist could expect monetary economists to lead campaigns against central banks and paper money."

This should make for an amusing reading.

To summarize, this book will look upon the production of money, notably the current system of fiat money, inflation and their effects. But in the end it is and analysis of the ethical side of the problems, i.e. what effect it has on our morals and whether it is good or evil in the end.


(Update: I also learned of another liveblogging effort by Gil Gillory. Darn. :) )

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