So it's a gross misunderstanding, I think, to characterize the Austrians as gold-fetishists (although there are certainly some worthy of that). In fact, it's not advocacy of an "economic system", but rather a belief that in the absence of any coerced "system", a free market settles upon a common medium (or perhaps, media) of exchange.
Under a commodity standard, money is the product of human action but not of human design.
One of the arguments I’ve seen leveled in favor of fractional reserve banking in recent weeks, goes something like this: Any law against fractional reserve banking denies otherwise free men their right to contract with one another. On a purely technical point, there need not be any specific “law” against the practice in order to nullify the practice. Per common-law tradition, the only essential question is whether courts would tolerate or maintain contracts of...
