35 years ago in reason

From the May 2009 issue

“The alchemists of today (often known as ‘new economists’) haven’t found the philosophers’ stone either—but they have found a substitute: the Keynesian stone. It turns gold into paper.”

—Eugene Guccione, “Gold: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”

“The deterioration of the banking balance sheet is so severe that only a huge liquidation of credit would restore normal liquidity relationships. Given the unwieldy debt load of corporations and individuals and the precarious financial condition of both sectors, such a credit liquidation would become cumulative. Banks have no choice but to continue to help their clients become more deeply mired in debt in order to keep the system from collapsing.”

—Perry Paris, “The Coming Credit Collapse”

“Fiscal policy measures which draw funds exclusively from the private capital market will increase total spending to the extent of the government spending, but since private capital is siphoned off, the ‘multiplier effect’ of fiscal policy approaches one for one.”

—J.M. Cobb, “What You Should Know About Fiscal & Monetary Policy”

-May 1974