Judy Shelton’s Remarkable Attack on the Fed--Jeff Deist; Book: Good as Gold: How to Unleash the Power of Sound Money--Judy Shelton
The Christian Faith in the Thought and Life of Frédéric Bastiat
[Bastiat passed away at the age of 39 from cancer of the throat. Murray Rothbard called him the first “Austrian” even though Austrian economics did not exist then. Open link about Bastiat - JRD]
“[L]iberty…is an act of faith in God and in His works.”
“This is how Frédéric Bastiat—a French economist known for his pioneering libertarian economic thought—concludes The Law, his most famous work. Reading his various writings and pamphlets, we can very often notice a recurring mention of God, or at least of a Creator, and of the morality that today we call “Judeo-Christian”; however, this faith found in his works can be found just as often in his life. This article aims to expose the role of the Catholic faith in the intellectual and personal aspect of Frédéric Bastiat.
Bastiat’s Thought
As already introduced, The Law is a very important work by Bastiat, and here we find the profound definition of freedom mentioned above but, we also find other statements with a religious background. Turning to the collectivist theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his disciples, horrified, Bastiat comments with a touch of irony:
But, oh! sublime writers, deign to remember sometimes that this clay, this sand, this manure, of which you are disposing in so arbitrary a manner, are men, your equals, intelligent and free beings like yourselves, who have received from God, as you have, the faculty of seeing, of foreseeing, of thinking, and of judging for themselves!
Bastiat was a natural law scholar. For him, every individual is endowed by his Creator with rights and faculties that no one can justly take away from him. This is the same case with another famous statement he wrote in The Law:
Nature, or rather God, has bestowed upon every one of us the right to defend his person, his liberty, and his property, since these are the three constituent or preserving elements of life;...
This is what is expressed in The Law by Bastiat as far as philosophy is concerned. It is a philosophical thought enlightened by a deep Christian faith that sees each individual as the image and likeness of the Lord. As far as economic thought is concerned, Bastiat expresses substantially the same natural law, to explain it we use his own words taken from Economic Harmonies and from the first edition of Economic Sophisms:
…the thought that put harmony into the movement of the heavenly bodies was also able to insert it into the internal mechanisms of society….
…freedom and public interest can be reconciled with justice [SEE: injustice, below] and peace; that all these great principles follow infinite parallel paths without conflicting with each other for all eternity;... [This] we know of the goodness and wisdom of God as shown in the sublime harmony of physical creation…
[Psalm 5:5 uses the word “injustice” or “iniquity”: “The boastful will not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do injustice. - JRD]
He is convinced that the harmony that exists in the natural sciences is also present in society and in interpersonal relationships, as a marvelous work of God. Again, in the introduction to Economic Harmonies, he writes about the harmony of individual interests:
It [the harmony of interests] is religious, for it assures us that it is not only the celestial but the social mechanism that reveals the wisdom of God, and declares His glory.”
Open link for complete article
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Judy Shelton’s Remarkable Attack on the Fed
Jeff Deist - 06/11/2019
“Judy Shelton’s recent interview with the Financial Times is nothing short of remarkable. Her comments represent the most substantive attack on the Fed, and central banking generally, by any potential nominee to the Fed board in recent history. She not only challenges how Jerome Powell and Fed officials conduct monetary policy, but whether they can conduct it competently at all.
Consider this salvo against the Fed’s inescapable role as central planner:
How can a dozen, slightly less than a dozen, people meeting eight times a year, decide what the cost of capital should be versus some kind of organically, market supply determined rate? The Fed is not omniscient. They don’t know what the right rate should be. How could anyone?” Ms Shelton said. “If the success of capitalism depends on someone being smart enough to know what the rate should be on everything . . . we’re doomed. We might as well resurrect Gosplan,” she said, referring to the state committee that ran the Soviet Union’s planned economy.
[Read the above carefully. Then read Psalm 5:5. - JRD]
And her attack on the Fed’s outsized role in the economy:
She also said that the Fed should continue to reduce its balance sheet below the $3.5tn target set by Jay Powell, the chairman. “I would rather the Fed be less of an entity. When a central bank buys up government debt, that’s the beginning of compromised finances.”
She also recognizes malinvestment:
“It’s the distorting aspect of the Fed that is the worst aspect — it’s a wag-the-dog situation. People are fixated on the Fed and are making money by arbitraging, trillions of a second after the latest FOMC announcement,” she added.
And she isn’t afraid to support a role for gold in monetary policy:
Open link for complete article
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Book: Good as Gold: How to Unleash the Power of Sound Money
by Judy Shelton (Author)
Amazon:
“From financial crises, to pandemic price-spikes, to recurring cycles of inflation, everyone agrees: the economy has seen better days.
But as soon as pundits and politicians start discussing economics, things get murky. Most books ask more questions than they answer.
Most books...but not this one.
Judy Shelton—Senior Fellow at Independent Institute, former Chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, and critically acclaimed monetary economist—has written a book with answers.
And not a moment too soon.
With clarity and moral courage, Shelton charts the course to a brighter future. She’s one of the few economists bold enough to challenge the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve, emphasizing how today’s policies enrich elites at the expense of—you guessed it—poor and middle-class Americans. This, Shelton insists, must end. And it can end—easily.
But Shelton doesn’t stop there. Her vision is for not only America but also for people around the world. Global, economic upliftment, she insists, need not come at the expense of domestic prosperity. We can have both—but not without a sound and stable U.S. currency.
And history is very clear on this point. When the U.S. dollar is backed by gold, America prospers, and so does the rest of the world. In this book, Shelton casts a powerful vision that is as revolutionary as it is time-tested...a vision that shows how the future American dollar can perform as good as gold...
...or even better.
But this is no curmudgeonly demand to return to the gold standard of yore. Neither is it a demand to return to the Bretton Woods era. Instead, Shelton offers something new: an explanation of how we can use gold for a new international monetary order. Step by step, she lays out how gold can provide a universal measure of value across borders, create new financial opportunities, and dramatically increase prosperity around the world.
If you care about the poor, rich, and everyone in between, you have to read this book ... and discover:
· how price stability functions as the foundation for productive economic growth;
· how political freedom and economic freedom are fundamentally linked ... and how one cannot exist without the other;
· how to reconcile the stability of America’s domestic currency in a global context;
· the proper role of government in the economy;
· and much, much more ...
Writing with a sober but hopeful voice, Shelton is no ordinary economist. With grace, intellectual rigor, and unmatched passion, this book is a must-read for anyone invested in the future of the American—and global—economy. You'll walk away with more answers than questions—a rare experience for anyone who reads about monetary policy.”
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