Do we need a reserve bank?
SUKRIT SABHLOK on scandals concerning Australia’s primary financial institution.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has been in the news recently, thanks to a corruption scandal splashed across the front pages of newspapers throughout the country. According to reports, two currency firms overseen by the Reserve Bank funnelled bribes to government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, to win banknote deals. Securency and Note Printing Australia are partly and wholly owned (respectively) by the RBA, and many prominent political figures sat on the boards of the two companies.
This scandal, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Other aspects of the RBA are equally shady, but are rarely exposed to public scrutiny. A new book by investor Chris Leithner, The Evil Princes of Martin Place: The Reserve Bank of Australia, the Global Financial Crisis and the Threat to Australians’ Liberty and Prosperity, documents in detail the nefarious schemes of Australia’s central bank.
Leithner is an adherent of the Austrian School of Economics, which argues that central banks are behind the boom-bust cycle that characterises modern economies. They are, in other words, the culprit responsible for recessions and depressions. By controlling the overnight cash rate (the rate at which banks borrow from the central bank), the Reserve Bank is able to control the money supply and thereby influence interest rates. This sets in motion a process that influences the rate of interest on housing loans, deposits and business loans.
The Constitutionality (or lack thereof) of Government’s Paper Money
Are you mad at the way that paper money has been foisted on the Australian people? Well you should be.
Listen to my interview of Andrew Dahdal, a speaker at the Mises Seminar.
Interview with Dr. Chris Leithner
If you don’t know who Dr. Chris Leithner is, listen to this interview. Chris will be speaking at the Mises Seminar on the following topic: “The Evil Princes of Martin Place: The Panic of 2008 and Why We Should End the RBA”.
Next speaker I’m interviewing is Dr. Andrew Dahdal, who is speaking about why fiat paper money is unconstitutional. Did you know the founders of Australia were against government paper money? That’s why they inserted section 115 into our Constitution: ‘A State shall not coin money, nor make anything but gold and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts’. Stay tuned for the interview, and feel free to suggest questions I should ask Dahdal.
Interview with Dr. Ben O’Neill
I talk briefly with Dr. Ben O’Neill, a speaker at the upcoming Mises Seminar.
New Australian libertarian podcast series
The first ever Mises Seminar radio show can be listened to here. We hope to get many big name guests on to be interviewed (from Australia and overseas), and will be taking calls from listeners.
Call for Papers – Journal of Peace, Prosperity & Freedom
To mark the historic Mises Seminar in Sydney, Liberty Australia is launching The Journal of Peace, Prosperity and Freedom. It will be dedicated to Austrian economics, revisionist history, legal arguments from an individualist perspective and other topics not adequately addressed by the IPA Review and Policy. The primary focus will be on Australia, although analysis of other countries is welcome too.
Journals are typically peer-reviewed, so I will maintain a list of referees with expertise in the specialist topics covered by the review. If you are interested in acting as a referee please shoot me an email.
Information for Contributors
Frequency: once a year.
Distribution: Published and distributed online. A print copy can be ordered through Amazon.com. I can also set up a regular subscription system, for those who prefer it to be automatically posted to them.
Submissions are sought for:
(1) Research articles up to 5000 words in length;
(2) commentaries up to 3000 words
(3) book reviews of between 800-2000 words.
The citation format used is the Cambridge Style, so please make sure submissions conform to this.
There’s no deadline: submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.
If you’d like to be a volunteer editor, have graphic design skills or want to donate time or money in other ways, do get in touch.
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Catallaxy Files- Open Forum: February 11, 2012 February 10, 2012 Sinclair Davidson
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- Where’s Romney? February 10, 2012It is quite extraordinary to watch the American political process up close. Now, I admit I have been busy and I don’t watch much of the television and do not read a lot of the press. But before I arrived the thing I did want to do was see more of Mitt Romney since from [...]Steve Kates
- inCISe
- More on PHI rebate means test February 10, 2012When I wrote in Incise yesterday, ‘Rebate should not be means tested,’ I did not expect events to move quite as quickly as they have. The government seems confident it has the numbers to get the means test through. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rob Oakshott and Andrew Wilkie have indeed swallowed the government’s nonsensical arguments, but it will be interestin […]Robert Carling
- Quiggin versus Carling and Kirchner February 9, 2012John Quiggin accuses Robert Carling and I of ‘an appalling breach of elementary standards of research’ for not acknowledging that Alberto Alesina’s work on the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus and consolidations is ‘highly controversial.’ In fact, we referenced Alesina’s work precisely because it has featured so prominently in public debate, including in the […]Stephen Kirchner
- Police going too far February 9, 2012According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, police are lecturing parents for letting their children walk to the shops or catch a bus on their own, with senior police saying such incidents will be reported to the Department of Community Services (DOCs) if a child is considered at risk. But when is a child ‘at risk’? One mother was told it was inappr […]Sara Hudson
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- IPA news
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012Australians will be surprised to learn that, apparently, the federal government now has responsibility to help the city of...
- It's time to bring back the thrift February 9, 2012Ted Baillieu plans to shave 3600 jobs from Victoria's bloated public service. The state of Wisconsin in the US, with a...
- We'll huff, we'll puff, we'll blow the budget into surplus February 8, 2012Bill Clinton famously said, "It's the economy, stupid". So it is. Unsuccessful politicians might be inclined to argue,...
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012
