Ludwig von Mises on Money and Inflation.pdf - The Ludwig von ...

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Many Economics Professors Believe the Quantity of
Money Should be Increased
Many famous professors of economics think that the supply of money is
insufficient. It’s unbelievable but we have now already for a long time,
for many years, textbooks that say, in every new edition, that the quantity
of money must increase by 2%, or 5%, or 7%. ey change it from
year to year—this is without any importance, what quantity they recommend
is not so important—what is important is that they say that such
an increase is good from the point of view of their policies. Wonderful!
e government, the banks, can distribute more money, but they cannot
distribute more goods. And this is the problem. As this additional money
will raise the prices of goods, those who do not get any of this additional
money are hurt. And this is what people don’t realize, what they don’t see.
If this money is increased every year it means only that other groups can
say “Why did we not get more” And then the government gives them a
quantity too and then again to others also. And this is the situation we
have today. e question will always be: To whom do you give this additional
quantity Because if the additional quantity is given to somebody
else, your conditions will be impaired.
I don’t say that the quantity of money should be increased, or that it
should be decreased. It is nonsensical if people complain in their textbooks
about the increase in wealth of some groups of the population and about
the decrease in wealth of other groups of the population and then recommend
policies which will bring about precisely those conditions they
consider wrong. From the point of view of most people, of the masses, an
increase in the money supply is bad.
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