FOFOA and Jacques Rueff 'The Age of Inflation'

Dogmatix · Jun 27, 2012

FOFOA linked to this old book by Jacques Rueff (from 1964) titled 'The Age of Inflation'. It is out of print.

Full book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/96554552/The-Age-of-Inflation-Jacques-Rueff

So far it is a good read, about currency inflation, the Great Depression, etc.

If you want it in PDF format, you can download it from Scribd by logging in, OR, do what I did as follows

Steps said:

Open link
Scroll to bottom
Click on 'embed' (not download, e-m-b-e-d )
Click on 'embed options'
Click on 'load preview'
Click on the download link at the bottom of the preview - it should save as PDF.
Click to expand...

Dogmatix · Jun 28, 2012

Bump?

I'm only up to page 35 (of 130), but so far it is excellent. You wouldn't know this wasn't written just yesterday.

It covers heaps of monetary history, makes Armstrong look like a hack. And the writing style is good.

Jacques:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Rueff

You can lead a horse to water...

doomsday surprise · Jun 28, 2012

Thanks, I've downloaded it and converted it to MOBI for my kindle. I'll get to it after I finish "Lords of finance - the bankers who broke the world" by Liaquat Ahamed, which is a great read about the lead up to and about the Great Depression concentrating on the 4 main central bank governors of the USA, England, Germany and France. I'm about a third of the way through and it really is a fascinating and quite easy read.
Also just read "The big short - inside the doomsday machine" by Michael Lewis, another great read about the derivatives market and the implosion of the US housing market and how much of a casino the whole system is.

Dogmatix · Jul 4, 2012

A passage from the book that I thought was particularly good - about inflation and employment. Ignore the god/satan parts. I've underlined bits I thought were particularly good.

'The Age of Inflation' (From Pg61)

A German economist called Wageman, who was somewhat prominent under Hitler, said, in a book published during the war, that "the most important scientific work of the French in the monetary field was Zola's great novel Money."
Notwithstanding the fact that, being the modest author of "Theory of Monetary Phenomena," I feel personally somewhat slighted, I shall demonstrate that I bear no hard feelings by replying to Wageman that it was Germany which gave the world its greatest money theoristGoethe. He was, to be sure, no economist, yet it was he who in Faust (Part II) clearly demonstrated that inflation was and could only be an invention of the devil.

Disguised temporarily as the king's jester, Mephistopheles prompts the Lord Chancellor to say:
Here and behold this leaflet rich in fate
That turns our woes to prosperous estate:
"To whom It may concern, this note of hand
Is worth a thousand ducats on demand,
The pledge whereof and guarantee is found
In treasure buried in the Emperor's ground."

He then fully sets forth the theories of exchange media and fully employment:
None has the power to stay the flying chits,
they run as quick as lightning on their way,
And money-booths kept open night and day,
When every single note is honored duly
With gold and silverthough with discount truly. [an
early example of monetary deprecation]
From there it flows to wine-shops, butchers, bakers,
with half the world as glutton merry-makers,
The other bent on flaunting fashion-showing,
The clothiers cutting-out, the tailors sewing . [full employment]
"His Majesty!"toasts flow and cellar clatters . . .
[the political advantages of inflation].

But in his commentary on the festivities, the Herald foresees an unhappy outcome:
Now see the charming mob all grabbing rush,
They almost maul the donor in the crush.
The gems he flicks around as in a dream,
And snatchers fill the hall in greedy stream.
But lo, a trick quite new to me:
The thing each seizes eagerly
Rewards him with a scurvy pay,
The gift dissolves and floats away.
The pearls are loosened from their band,
And beetles scurry round his hand.
And round his head they buzz about.
With solid goods before their eyes,
Some grab, and catch frail butterflies.
The rascal offers wealth untold,
But gives the glitter, not the gold.

Nothing is missing: the technical formula, the political advantages, the social consequences. The poet was indubitably more clear-sighted than are most economists; he understood and clearly demonstrated that inflation was the work of the devil because it respected appearances but destroyed reality.

Inflation presents higher incomes to the wage earners, but no sooner does it give them a taste of the promised standard of living than it cunningly whittles it down by raising prices, as though deliberately to heighten the regrets of its victims for the short-lived prosperity. Could there be a more diabolic device for arousing a sense of frustration?

I would be especially fallacious to regard this decrease in buying power as episodic and incidental; it is the very essence of the inflationary process. The inflation which follows a deficit does not create wealth. The lowering of purchasing power of all those whose earnings do not keep pace with the rising prices is the means chosen to free the excess wealth which the deficit allowed its beneficiaries to obtain.

Inflation is the blindest of all fiscal techniques, for it leaves to the whim of adjustment lags the task of apportioning the levy it has exacted. Thus, totally lacking in fairness, it lays before the devil a rich source of social discontent.

IS THE ESCALATOR A REMEDY?
The wage escalator (I think this means annual wage increases) has been offered as a remedy, to afford protection from the movement of prices. As such, it seems both fair and desirable. But to the degree that it hastens the alignment of wages to prices, it adds momentum to inflation. Thus has Satan created a fearful dilemma for those of us who are shocked by the levy of inflation: either to discard an equitable solution or quicken the Satanic process of installing the devil in our midst. Can't you hear the sardonic and triumphant laughter of the Adversary, who will not leave the world in peace?

To this impact on incomes is added a parallel impact on money claims. Mounting prices debase the real value of annuities, insurance policies, pensions and rent. Good intentions become a mockery, sacrifices to achieve security in later years are thwarted, saving is penalized, and squandering rewarded. Once again, only Mephistopheles could devise so insidious a technique to deride the "upright citizen" and to swell the ranks of his improvident and frivolous band. To be sure, the small coterie of real estate owners and those whose earnings keep pace with rising prices are sheltered from the scourge of inflation. Those whose debts are payable in, say, francs benefit from the inflation even as their creditors suffer from it.

Inflation thus divides men into three categories: those who suffer from it (the most numerous), those whom it does not affect, and those who, benefit from it. The resentment felt by the first category is aggravated by the indifference of the second and the contentment of the third. Inflation is even more potent than Marxist ideology in creating class divisions. The mood of frustration it arouses among a large majority of the people, among those who should have been the best-protected, engenders a force for revolution and subversion of the social order.

The microcosm known as man might have been influenced by the gradual tendency to introduce greater justice and charity into human relations, but that was not to be. Justice had to be undermined and charity eliminated, and distrust and hatred put in their place. Satan was on hand with his contributioninflation. Henceforth, only those who manage to have their wages constantly adjusted to ever-mounting prices will succeed in protecting their standard of living. Loyalty to the pressure lobby rather than devotion to work will become the price of security and well-being. Thus the devil need no longer fear that a morality of work will bind man to his everyday task. From his hiding place behind the screen of inflation, he can roar with contempt as he teaches the workers that the way to get the most is by working as little or as poorly as possible.

INFLATION IMPEDES INVESTMENT
Inflation destroys not only the present but also the future, whose sources it dries up. Whatever lasts may be called investment, the denial of immediate consumption for the sake of consumption later on. Investment is the precondition of social progress. To encourage and facilitate it, God implanted in the hearts of men the desire to ensure their future and that of their descendants. Foresight leads to thrift, which in turn fosters savings.

A community which saves more than it uses or destroys can look forward to ever more prosperous tomorrows. The growth of a general state of well-being might have put an end to the complaints of men, to their envy and their hatred, but the devil had an eye for this danger as well. Through inflation, he craftily taught the thrifty that they were today giving up a prize which tomorrow would be worth only the shadow of a shadow. The lesson has been learned. A man who has experienced inflation consumes all his reserves right away. The markets are emptied of capital. Money rates reach such heights that no honest business can pay them. No longterm projectno construction of dwellings, hospitals, or schools, no water supply system or electric power networkis feasible any longer if the service it provides is expected to be self-supporting.

Meanwhile, to fan the flames which are consuming man's future, the devil, by devising ingenious and seemingly scientific theories as well as by opportune forms of destruction, amused himself by whetting men's appetite for investment. In this way, he made more desirable the very things he prevented men from having. Investment without savings placed an additional burden on man's budget, and by thus throwing it hopelessly out of balance fed the fires of inflation. At the same time inflation kept the firemen from extinguishing the flames. No budget can be balanced in a system where any rise in taxes or charges causes further rises which in turn create further deficits. The problem of balancing the budget can only be tackled and solved in a situation where prices are stable.
Click to expand...

fiatphoney · Jul 4, 2012

Dogmatix said:

clearly demonstrated that inflation was and could only be an invention of the devil.
Click to expand...

Only written 2,500 years too late, typical plagiarists.
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. Daniel 8:25

.

Log in or Sign up

FOFOA and Jacques Rueff 'The Age of Inflation'

Dogmatix Active Member

Dogmatix Active Member

doomsday surprise Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

Dogmatix Active Member

fiatphoney New Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

FOFOA and Jacques Rueff 'The Age of Inflation'

Dogmatix Active Member

Dogmatix Active Member

doomsday surprise Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

Dogmatix Active Member

fiatphoney New Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches