The idea that political freedom can be preserved in the absence of economic freedom, and vice versa, is an illusion. Political freedom is the corollary of economic freedom.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
If the practice persists of covering government deficits with the issue of notes, then the day will come without fail, sooner or later, when the monetary systems of those nations pursuing this course will break down completely. The purchasing power of the monetary unit will decline more and more, until finally it disappears completely.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Excessive printing of money to cover government deficits leads to the devaluation of currency and eventual economic collapse.
Ludwig Von Mises warns against the dangerous practice of financing government deficits by printing more money. He argues that such actions result in a gradual decline of the currency's purchasing power, ultimately leading to a complete breakdown of the monetary system. This serves as a cautionary tale about the long-term consequences of reckless fiscal policies.
Themes
Monetary PolicyInflationGovernmentCurrencyEconomic CollapseDeficits
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on economic policies, you might reference this quote to highlight the dangers of irresponsible financial practices.
More from Ludwig Von Mises
All quotes →Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
Only stilted pedants can conceive the idea that there are absolute norms to tell what is beautiful and what is not. They try to derive from the works of the past a code of rules with which, as they fancy, the writers and artists of the future should comply. But the genius does not cooperate with the pundit.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
The most serious dangers for American freedom and the American way of life do not come from without.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
The public firm can nowhere maintain itself in free competition with the private firm; it is possible today only where it has a monopoly that excludes competition. Even that alone is evidence of its lesser economic productivity.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
Each epoch has found in the Gospels what it sought to find there, and has overlooked what it wished to overlook.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
Similar quotes
If the financial system has a defect, it is that it reflects and magnifies what we human beings are like. Money amplifies our tendency to overreact, to swing from exuberance when things are going well to deep depression when they go wrong. Booms and busts are products, at root, of our emotional volatility.
Niall FergusonRead
The merchants will manage [commerce] the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.
Milton FriedmanRead
Can we please agree that in the real world, corporations exist for one purpose and one purpose only - to make as much money as possible, which means cutting costs as much as possible?
Robert ReichRead
The great thing about fiscal policy is that it has a direct impact and doesn't require you to bind the hands of future policymakers.
Paul KrugmanRead
The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead