[With stablecoin, my position on blockchains has changed. The following is why everyone with more than $600 in savings should be subscribing to both The Wall Street Journal and to Barron’s. Bill]
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William
Inside the Coming War Over Digital Currencies—and What It Means for Your Money
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Updated September 18, 2021 / Original September 17, 2021
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The war over money is heating up: For the first time in more than a century, the dollar’s supremacy is being challenged. The rise of cryptocurrencies and “stablecoins” has spurred a rethinking of what a currency is, who regulates it, and what it means when it’s no longer controlled by a national government. The dollar itself may be getting an overhaul, transformed into a digital currency that can travel instantly around the world, holding up against Bitcoin or any other token.
The old battle lines between national currencies are being redrawn by an onslaught of crypto insurgents. These privately issued currencies are fragmenting monetary systems, banking, and payments. The landscape calls to mind the “wildcat” money era of the mid-1800s, when a scrum of banks supplied their own notes—prompting the Federal Reserve to establish a national currency. Commerce doesn’t run as efficiently without a “no questions asked” currency, and governments risk losing control over fiscal and monetary policies if multiple currencies vie for economic activity.
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Illustration by Glenn Harvey
What kind of upheaval will the new currencies wreak? No one knows. And there are plenty of legitimate use-cases for cryptos and applications built on top of blockchain networks. But the technology is so disruptive that it’s triggering calls for a cascade of new regulations, and it’s spurring governments around the world to think about digitizing their currencies, at least partly to remain relevant and maintain control over their economic interests. The Fed itself is expected to weigh in with its own report in coming days.
“The advent of digital currencies may allow people and businesses to get around banks,” says Thomas Hoenig, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “If cryptos become a substitute for the dollar, they could create a separate money environment that would make monetary policies more difficult to implement.”
Cryptos are now worth $2.1 trillion, doubling in value this year alone. Bitcoin, worth nearly $900 billion, recently became legal tender in El Salvador—a controversial monetary shift in the country, but one that may pave a path for other developing nations. Capital is flooding into companies that are building everything from trading platforms to exchanges for trading new digital assets like non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Investors are also trading tokens on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, and they’re earning high yields by “staking” their tokens to network operators.
RELATED MARKET DATA
Cryptos and other tokens aren’t (yet) close to denting the $19.4 trillion U.S. money supply or the 50% of international trade that’s invoiced in dollars. One measure of the dollar’s hegemony—its share of central bank reserves—has been declining for 25 years, but at 60% it remains three times that of its closest rival, the euro. Vast markets of global commodities are priced in the dollar. Trillions of dollars in sovereign and commercial debt are pegged to the “risk free” rate of Treasuries.
But challenges to the dollar posed by blockchain technologies aren’t so easy to dismiss.
Cryptos, stablecoins and NFTs are becoming the native tokens of gaming and e-commerce platforms. Virtual-reality platforms are being designed to incorporate NFTs or other private currencies. As economic activity shifts to these walled gardens, banks and government-backed money could wind up on the outskirts.
The Trillion Dollar ClubCryptocurrencies have surged in value, led by Bitcoin and EthereumMarket Value of CryptosSource: CoinMarketCap
billionOct. 2019Sept.05001000150020002500$3000
Challenging the Incumbents
Big money is at stake, especially for banks and other companies that effectively charge “rents” for moving dollars around. North American banks, card networks, and nonbank “fintechs” earn huge sums for payment and credit-card services—$500 billion a year, according to data from consultancy McKinsey. That amounts to an estimated 2% toll on U.S. gross domestic product—much of it in credit card fees.
Many banks and financial companies, including Visa (ticker: V) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), are working to integrate cryptos and stablecoins, aiming to capture fees on brokerage, custodial, and payment services. But they face technologies that threaten their revenues—and, perhaps more important, access to data.
Solana, for instance, is a relative newcomer in crypto. Developed by a former software engineer at Qualcomm, the network claims to handle 65,000 transactions per second at a cost of $0.00025 per transaction, making it far faster and cheaper than bigger rivals like Ethereum. It’s taking off for stablecoins and NFTs—new digital playthings for art, video, and music. Solana’s blockchain network is also attracting high-frequency trading firms that see it as a platform for ultrafast data feeds and trading applications for cryptos, stocks, and other securities.
BTIG analyst Mark Palmer calls Solana the “biggest blockchain breakout of 2021,” noting that it’s powering a much-anticipated “metaverse” game called Star Atlas that uses NFTs for in-game assets. “The speed that Solana’s architecture facilitates is a literal game-changer in the NFT gaming world,” he wrote in a recent report. The network crashed this past week as usage surged, pulling its token down. But its fall may also reflect some profit-taking after a 9,166% rally this year, pushing the token from $1.50 to $139, giving it a $41 billion market value.
The Battle for a Digital Dollar
One of the biggest financial-policy battles that’s shaping up in Washington is over digitizing the dollar—turning it into a token that may be issued directly to consumers by the central bank. A much-anticipated report is expected soon from the Fed, outlining its perspective on a central-bank digital currency, or CBDC. Other countries, led by China, have already launched CBDCs in pilot programs, putting pressure on the Fed to develop a rival.
A digital dollar could take many forms. The basic idea is that the central bank would issue a new digital instrument for transactions and deposits, alongside physical cash or entries on a bank ledger (essentially deposits). Payments could settle in real time, proponents argue, and fees could fall sharply since the Fed doesn’t have a profit incentive. That could be a huge win for the 6% of the population that’s “unbanked” and pays steep fees for check-cashing. People sending money overseas could also pay much lower fees for “remittances,” cutting out middlemen like Western Union (WU) and MoneyGram.
International pressure is building as China and other countries take the lead in CBDCs. “The time has passed for central banks to get going,” said Benoît Coeuré, head of innovation at the Bank for International Settlements, in a speech in September. “We should roll up our sleeves and accelerate our work on the nitty-gritty of CBDC design.”
Fed officials seem split on the idea, however, let alone the specifics. Governor Lael Brainard, who may be in line for Chairman Jerome Powell’s job next year, has indicated support for a CBDC. But governor Christopher Waller is a skeptic, describing a digital dollar as a “solution in search of a problem.” As he sees it, commercial banks and the Fed are already developing real-time settlement; stablecoins may put pressure on banking fees, he argues, and most of the unbanked don’t even want accounts, according to surveys. “The government should compete with the private sector only to address market failures…and I don’t think that CBDCs are the case for making an exception,” he said in a speech last month.
Politicians, not Fed officials, are likely to have the final word. A bill backed by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) envisions the Fed offering “digital dollar wallets.” Commercial banks would maintain the wallets, entitling owners to a share of the bank’s reserves held at the Fed. For consumers without access to branches, he sees the Postal Service turning into a digital-dollar bank.
None of this appeals to bankers, of course, who worry that the Fed could siphon away their deposits and undermine lending. “The drawbacks appear to be more pronounced than the benefits, at least in the U.S.,” says Rob Morgan, a senior vice president with the American Bankers Association.
JPMorgan is calling for “minimally invasive CBDCs,” according to a recent report by Joshua Younger, head of U.S. fixed-income strategy. CBDC deposits that are limited to $2,500 would mitigate the potential for the Fed to “cannibalize” deposits, he argues. He also says that U.S. banks are already “partially nationalized,” with 15% of their assets held as Fed reserves and Treasury securities, levels that may increase if the Fed got into commercial banking.
Taming the Crypto Wild West
Regulators aren’t sitting idly as digital currencies plant roots. Federal and state agencies are working on rules to keep tabs on the industry. Gary Gensler, the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, laid out an expansive agenda to regulate crypto tokens, trading, and lending platforms in a Senate hearing this past week. “Large parts of the field of crypto are sitting astride of—not operating within—regulatory frameworks,” he said. Automated exchanges could be in for more scrutiny, along with lending platforms like BlockFi, where investors can earn high yields on crypto deposits.
Congress sees plenty of opportunity to raise revenue by taxing crypto. Democrats in the House have included “digital assets” in their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, including a provision that would subject cryptos to “wash sale” rules, which prevent investors from claiming a tax loss if they buy the same security within 30 days (before or after) of the sale. That measure alone could raise an estimated $16 billion over a decade.
Still, it won’t be easy for regulators to tax or police the entire industry. Crypto brokerages outside the U.S. handle much of the trading volume. Exchanges like Uniswap use protocols and “smart contracts” to process transactions, operating independently of any centralized entity like a bank or brokerage firm. “The underlying protocol is operating on its own, and users can still trade the assets, irrespective of the SEC,” says Anthony Georgiades, a crypto investor with Innovating Capital. “It’s sufficiently decentralized so that even if they try to delist the assets, they couldn’t.”
Tokenizing the WorldThe number of cryptos has jumped almost140% in the past two years.Source: CoinMarketCapNote: In Oct. 2020 CoinMarketCap removedinactive cryptocurrencies from the totals.
2020’21200030004000500060007000
Washington still can’t agree on whether to classify cryptos as a currency, security, or commodity. The Internal Revenue Service calls cryptos “property,” while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has oversight over the crypto futures market, and a patchwork of agencies oversee the banks and exchanges.
A few states aren’t waiting around for more federal rules. BlockFi is in trouble with regulators in New Jersey and Texas, states where it could soon be illegal for residents to open an account with the company. BlockFi CEO Zac Prince says uniform federal banking rules are needed. “It’s gonna come down to federal regulators…creating a path for this type of activity to happen,” he said at a conference this past week.
Stablecoins pose perhaps the biggest regulatory conundrum. The tokens have a fixed value of $1, typically pegged to the dollar. More than $110 billion are in circulation, primarily in Tether and USD Coin. Investors use the coins as dollar substitutes to transact on exchanges; they’re also gaining traction for international payments and peer-to-peer, or P2P, transactions.
A game-changing “stablecoin” may be coming from Diem, a consortium of 26 companies, originally conceived by Facebook (FB). Diem is trying to launch a “regulatory friendly” version, says Christian Catalini, chief economist of the Diem Association. Its underlying network, backed by companies including Uber Technologies (UBER), Coinbase Global (COIN), and Spotify Technology (SPOT), will levy fees expected to be less than 0.10% per transaction, far below what banks and card networks now charge.
Diem could be a blockbuster. The token could quickly gain traction for things like Uber fares, Gucci bags on Farfetch (FTCH), or subscriptions on Spotify—cutting out payment middlemen with lower transaction fees. The network is also designed for P2P transactions, including remittances, and the underlying blockchain technology could move programmable digital assets in the future. The Diem coin itself, however, might be short-lived if a digital dollar launches. “We’ve committed to phasing out the token when there is a digital dollar,” Catalini says.
Diem has pledged to hold high-quality assets as reserves for its coins, backed at least one-to-one by cash or Treasuries. It might not have much choice: Regulators are starting to view stablecoins as a source of financial instability, and they may be close to issuing new rules on capital and reserve requirements for issuers.
The concern is that coin issuers aren’t backing their tokens with 100% cash reserves, using proxies like commercial paper, bank “repo” agreements, and other securities. That might be fine in normal market conditions, but it could be destabilizing in a crisis. Money-market funds have experienced runs that spilled over into other areas, prompting the Fed to stabilize the market, most recently in March 2020. “It’s a central problem that the Fed worries about from a stability point,” says Morgan Ricks, a law professor at Vanderbilt University and former Treasury official.
Tether, the largest stablecoin, has run into legal trouble over its reserves, agreeing last February to more disclosure in a deal with the New York attorney general. But its reserve composition remains opaque. Tether, backed by the Bitfinex exchange, holds only 3.9% of the coin’s reserves in cash and 2.9% in T-bills, according to its latest disclosure, with 65% in commercial paper. Tether says its tokens are “always 100% backed by our reserves.”
The Treasury Department recently convened a task force to develop a framework for regulating stablecoins. Some leading economists say it’s overdue. “Policy makers may view stablecoins as an up-and-coming financial innovation that does not pose any systemic risk,” wrote Yale University economist Gary Gorton in a recent paper co-authored with a Fed attorney, Jeffery Zhang. “That would be a mistake because this is precisely when policy makers need to act.”
The Dollar Won’t Go Away
The dollar won’t go down easily. It has deflected multiple threats since President Richard Nixon ended its peg to gold in 1971, turning it into a free-floating “fiat” currency. A bout of inflation in the 1970s, the rise of the Japanese yen in the 1980s, and the euro’s ascent in the early 2000s all failed to knock it down.
A common marketing case for Bitcoin, the largest crypto, is that it’s “digital gold” with a fixed supply of 21 million tokens; by design, it can’t be increased, unlike fiat currencies that may be depreciated by governments for political or economic gains. Central banks have embarked on a money-printing spree—the Fed’s balance sheet has ballooned to $8.3 trillion from $1 trillion in 2008. Crypto backers argue that the dollar’s purchasing power will diminish due to inflationary forces tolerated by central banks, while cryptos will hold more of their value.
Taking a CutBanks and payment companies reap trillions of dollars for moving money aroundGlobal Payments RevenueSource: McKinsey
trillionEstimateAsia-PacificNorth AmericaEMEALatin America20102014201820192020E0.00.51.01.52.0$2.5
Yet for all the carping about currency “debasement,” or an erosion of purchasing power in the dollar, the economics are far more complex. Inflation hasn’t proved deeply problematic in North America since the early 1980s. Before the pandemic, it was so low that policy makers worried about deflation. Rising labor costs and global supply-chain disruptions pose near-term inflationary threats, but their persistence isn’t assured. The forces that have kept a lid on inflation—including aging populations in developed economies and productivity gains from technology—aren’t going away.
History is also on the dollar’s side in the sense that governments have never allowed rival currencies to usurp their authority. Technologies make the job tougher but not insurmountable, and the greater the success of currencies like Bitcoin, the more governments may try to kill it.
What It Means for Investors
What’s the impact for investors in crypto-infrastructure stocks and currencies? For now, not much. Crypto stocks and prices for digital currencies have climbed for months, despite tighter regulatory scrutiny. Capital is flooding into the industry as use-cases for cryptos, stablecoins, and decentralized-finance, or DeFi, networks expand. New rules will take months or years to be written and implemented by regulatory agencies. A digital dollar could become a partisan battle that gets bogged down in Congress.
Clarity from regulators may be welcomed, since they could open the floodgates to investment products and services, expanding the market with advisors and institutional fund managers that oversee trillions of dollars in global assets. Banks also want a level playing field to cut down on “regulatory arbitrage” that may now give pure-play crypto companies an advantage.
The crypto industry, for its part, is also becoming a lobbying force. The industry exerted its influence in August as lawmakers added tax-reporting requirements on crypto companies to the Senate infrastructure bill. The lobbying blitz failed, but the battle isn’t over—it will probably shift to regulatory agencies.
As for the dollar, the very currencies that are nipping at its heels could help preserve it. Cryptos and other tokens haven’t been tested in a crisis when investors dump anything with a whiff of risk. The diciest currencies fall the hardest during panics, and cryptos could follow precedent. “If there is a crisis, all these parallel currencies will take flight into the sovereign,” predicts Hoenig. Digital or not, the dollar will live to fight another day.
Write to Daren Fonda at daren.fonda@barrons.com
[Explains why gold, silver, and copper haven’t risen as they should. With stablecoins not being supported by trimetalicism or necessary fungible commodities, but by debt and tradable assets, the implication is a currency bubble that may lead to a bust, as all bubbles do, and market downturn, as these assets are sold to redeem stablecoins, but the attack on liberty and freedom, as shown by the Harris/Biden cabal’s pushing the IRS to have complete access to all bank accounts over $600 w/o the restrictions of the Vth Amendment or Probable Cause will lead to a Chinese style of global tyranny. Consider, we will all live in the world of Terese Xu of Beijing (WSJ Weekend 9/18-19-2021 p A8). And, of those who died incarcerated in their apartments in Wuhan to prevent the spread of the PLA-Fauci COVID bio-weapon.
Justplainbill]
Justplainbill's Weblog 
Reading List update 1/20/2026
A Starter’s Reading List
Early Histories of Western Civilization:
Most people, generally, ignore these earlier peoples and their histories. Both Commentaries and Thucydides are filled with policies, histories, and biographies that are still relevant, and have been since before they were written. Thucydides in particular is a blueprint of how to both succeed and fail in government & war. The fact that it starts with an explanation of how these wars started, a how to and how not to execute diplomacy, and ends with the destruction of Athens, and why they lost, is more instructive than Sun Tzu’s Art of War will ever be. Commentaries is a further exploration on how to win and lose, and both are extraordinarily relevant in our nuclear age.[1]
Cæsar, Julius: The Landmark Julius Cæsar: The Complete Works ISBN 978-0-307-45544-4
Referred to by some as ‘Cæsar’s Commentaries,’ includes Gallic War[2] and Civil War. I prefer the Landmark series for all sorts of reasons, primarily that they are annotated and have maps placing all of the locations in place for easy reference. So much explanation by the editors in the margins that other source materials are unnecessary, not even a dictionary or glossary, unless one wants to delve into the history of the time & place.
Thucydides: The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to The Peloponnesian War ISBN 978-1-4165-9087-3
Like Commentaries, the Landmark people have made this an easily readable and understandable piece of work. Even better, they got Dr. Victor Davis Hanson to do the introduction. Look for Landmark editions where possible. Herodotus comes in Landmark, too.
Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome ISBN 0-14-044060-7
Tacitus’ last work covers Rome from ~55 AD to ~117 AD, this is the period leading up to the fall. It ends with Nero’s death.
Herodotus: The Histories ISBN 1-59308-102-2
Describes the rise of Greece and the creation of the city-states from an agricultural & subsistence society into the civilization, Western, foundations for contract law and banking systems and to the fount of Western philosophy, including the concepts of democracy, free trade, and social equality. May be the first surviving Western history book. Some think that the pieces he wrote about Egypt were foisted on him by guides as the Egyptian locals may have thought of him as a simplistic tourist rather than a serious historian, they being so much more culturally advanced.
Everitt, Anthony: Cicero; the life and times of Rome’s greatest politician ISBN 978-0-375-75895-9
Exactly what it says: a well-researched biography of Cicero, one of the greatest orators, politicians, and jurists of Western Civilization.
Of interest are the “pre-history” works that suggest several civilizations existed before The Great Flood. Various engineers vacationing in India, Egypt and Western Africa have pointed out anomalies that clearly make it apparent that machine tools were used in the construction of Ancient works in Egypt, China, Siam, and India. See: Christopher Dunn’s, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt, ISBN 978-159143102-2, and Brien Foerster’s Lost Ancient Technology of Egypt (two volumes) ISBN 978-1-500915568.
Early colonies & the War of 1776, “The Revolutionary War”
Rothbard, Murray N.: Conceived in Liberty ISBN 978-1-933550-98-5
Five volumes in two books, tenth grade level reading skills, available in hardback and paperback at www.mises.org/store . The Mises Institute is the premiere Austrian School of Economics proponent in the U.S. It is located at the University of Alabama, Auburn. Conceived in Liberty covers from the first settlements, the 17th Century, through the new republic, 1791.
McCullough, David: 1776 ISBN 0-7432-2671-2
One volume, tenth grade read.
Middlekauff, Robert: The Glorious Cause ISBN 0-19-503575-5
One volume, another tenth grade read. About the revolution.
Several good intermediate level, 12th grade reads:
DiLorenzo, Thomas J.: Hamilton’s Curse ISBN 978-0-307-38285-6
“How Jefferson’s Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution – and What It Means for Americans Today,” quote from the dust cover.
Maier, Pauline: Ratification; The People Debate the Constitution, 1787 – 1788 ISBN 978-0-684-86854-7
Prof. Maier went to the original source documents of all of the ratification conventions and states’ legislatures to figure out what happened. Of particular interest to me, Mark Levin & Pete Hegseth notwithstanding, is the number of states that insisted that the right to secede, as evidenced by the secession conventions of 1776, 1814, 1826, and 1860 be acknowledged by all member states.
Tuchman, Barbara W.: The Shot Heard Around the World (cannot find my copy)
Mason, Matthew: Slavery & Politics in the Early American Republic ISBN 978-0-8078-3049-9
Discusses how slavery impacted early American politics. Definitely not read by the 1619 Project proponents, nor anyone in the NAACP or the Democratic Party.
Lefkowitz, Mary: Not Out of Africa ISBN 0-465-09838-X
Noted Egyptologist refutes all of the nonsense about African-American oral histories and their attachment to Egyptian Civilization.
Between the two secessions
Lots and lots of things occurred between 1783 and 1860. Two of the best are Calhoun’s A Disquisition on Government and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Calhoun’s commentary on the mistakes made in the constitution are still relevant, as are de Tocqueville’s. Of particular interest to us today, is how de Tocqueville points out how few poor there are, and how few rich there are in America and how our democratic-republic is ours to lose, this back in the 1820’s. Commentary on losing our freedom was a familiar theme of both Ben Franklin’s and Thomas Jefferson’s.
The War of 1861, “The Civil War” or “The American Civil War” to differentiate it from the other civil wars, such as the English “War of the Roses” and the “Spanish Civil War” which usually only refers to the one in the 1930’s.
Foote, Shelby: The Civil War: a narrative ISBN 0-394-74623-6
Three volumes in paperback, about 1,000 pp each, tenth grade level reading skills, available on Amazon.
Hillsdale college, www.hillsdale.edu has numerous DVDs on both subjects as well as some biblical studies. They are on-line for study at your own pace. They are free upon request, and you may be interested in their speaker series letter Imprimus, also at no charge although they would like donations.
Another DVD source, not as a good in my opinion but still having reliable source material is the Smithsonian Institution’s The Great Courses DVD series which are on just about everything including how to play the guitar, yoga, &c. TGC DVD’s generally run from $29.99 to $499.99 depending upon the material. I have found their ‘books of distinction’ series to have honest reviews and analyses of these works, for the purpose of this introductory reading list, they have an understandable set on The Federalist Papers.
For a better understanding of the constitution and what originalism is all about, you must read both The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers. Keeping in mind that ratification and the Bill of Rights would not exist without both of these sets of pamphlets.
In the Hillsdale series is one of particular note: The Skeptic’s Guide to American History. The Hillsdale people also have hard copy workbooks & guides to go with their DVDs, but you have to pay for them. If you are serious, getting the guides and workbooks is worth the small price requested. Otherwise, just hearing the non-woke histories is worth the time spent watching them.
Intermediate level works are too numerous to list, but include any of the works of William Freehling, Thomas DiLorenzo, Mark E. Neely, Jr., Forrest McDonald, Eric Foner, and of special note is:
Kennedy, James R., Kennedy, Walter D.: The South Was Right ISBN 1-56554-024-7
Reviled and repudiated by The Left, especially the rabid racists, includes a summation of the 1860 U.S. census showing the actual ethnic breakdown of slaves in the country; the number of Native-Americans in slavery (~40%), Chinese (~3%), and Whites (~1%, mostly of Irish descent in the Union slave states of MD, DE, and MO).
Both of these time periods have many good works where the author went to the original source materials. Look especially for historians from Southern universities as they are more interested in truth than fostering the Northern perspective. A recent work on the duplicity of the Northern aggression is:
Addicott, Jeffrey F. (Lt. Col. U.S. Army; BA, JD, LLM [2], SJD): Union Terror ISBN 978-1-94766-0-823
Pretty much details how the Union Army raped, pillaged, and burnt its way through the South for the sole purpose of looting the country-side. Sherman bragged at a post-war re-union of his army how they took North over $100,000,000.00[3] in loot and how they destroyed even more of The South. Keep in mind that the Federal budget of the early 19th Century shows that The South contributed over 75% of Federal revenue while The North received over 75% of it in the form of economic development, mostly of railroads and canals.
Economics
I know of no basic/simple economics books, but readable starters are more about history than PPM (purchasing power of money) or MMT (Modern Monetary Theory – which by-the-by is simply a repackaging of 19th century Marxist Chartelism theory, so loved by AOC, Mamdani, & Bernie, keep in mind that The Warmth of Collectivism has murdered over 100,000,000[4] in just the last 200 years, i.e., from The Age of Metternich to the present), so,
Mises, Ludwig von: Omnipotent Government; The Anti-Capitalist Mentality; Theory and History; Liberalism, the classic tradition, his magnum opus is Human Action, but do not go there before reading the shorter works.
The Mises Institute has all sorts of pamphlets that they will send for no or little charge. They include works on money (Rothbard: What Has Government Done to Our Money; Hulsmann: How Inflation Destroys Civilization; Salerno: The Progressive Road to Socialism), government, and moral philosophy (Hoppe: Social Democracy). The Cato Institute also publishes relevant works on both economics and politics. One recent publication is A Fiscal Cliff, new perspectives on the U.S. federal debt crisis. The Cato Institute is where I get the pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
Boettke, Peter J., Coyne, Christopher J.: The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics ISBN 978-0-19-981176-2
Essays and articles on the school of Austrian Economics. Not for beginners, but an essential read for those interested in economics beyond the supply/demand curve and simple banking. Especially good for those who want to learn more about marginal utility and human action.
Exceptional historical piece on war, economics, and humanity: Ralph Raico, The World at War, ISBN 978-1-61016-778-9, as far as I know, only available at mises.org/store but may be also on Amazon. Mises.org has numerous pubs taken from Raico lectures, so far, all are good reading, excepting only Raico’s PhD dissertation, which requires familiarity with several European languages as some is in Italian, German, French and Spanish. Also, Leonard Read’s essays have been compiled into Freedom in One Lesson, and Hunter Lewis’ Economics in Three Lessons. In my opinion, these are intermediate reads only because none of the basics are taught in K-12, much less at the university level. Also, from memory, think that Hayek has Economics in One Lesson, but I cannot find my copy to verify this. Mises also has Hayek in the 21st century.
Business histories are a good place to go as they combine some economics with what has actually happened. William D. Cohan, John Steele Gordon, and Charlie Gasperino are just a few of the many business historians. I suggest starting with Gordon’s An Empire of Wealth, ISBN 978-0-06-06-009362-5.
For the issue of slavery, first read Foote, then go to:
Thomas, Hugh: The Slave Trade, ISBN 978-0-684-81063-8
Adams, Charles: Slavery, Secession, & Civil War ISBN 978-0-8108-5863-3
Loads more when you are ready, especially works by The Founding Fathers. Things like how they were so opposed to troops being quartered in the homes of private citizens, a common practice from before the Roman Republic, how during The Ratification conventions, three states refused in conclave to ratify the 1787 Constitution (the one that we still have) unless everyone understood that they could leave the union at any time that they wanted to leave, (Mark Levin & Pete Hegseth notwithstanding, adequate research shows that slavery was not the over-riding issue, but that a combination of wealth redistribution and the items that Jefferson put into the Declaration of Independence on self-governance were), and how there was a secession movement by the New England states in 1814, and by South Carolina in 1826, and the Deep South in the 1850’s, this latter one causing Representative Abraham Lincoln to make a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives acknowledging the right to secede, but please don’t. Said speech is in the Congressional Record.[5]
Outstanding collectibles are available for S&H included at about $38.00, through The Library of America, loa.org . Look to the ‘slipcover’ copies which come with carboard slip covers of the hardback books.
Of further interest on the causes of the American Civil War, is the 1850’s Supreme Court decision Scott vs Davis a.k.a. The Dred Scott Decision. SCOTUS declared that slaves were property, and as such, fell under the private property restrictions of the constitution and as such, slaves were not protected by the constitution. Considering that at the time, ~58% of slaves were of African descent, importation of slaves forbidden around or before 1800, 38% Indians (“Native Americans”), 3% Chinese (working on the Pacific sections of the railroad) CA being a ‘free’ state the Chinese overseers/owners not bothering to tell their slaves that they were free, and 1% White (Irish mostly, domestics “up North”), slavery wasn’t really about Race, but the economic stealing of the productivity of the individual, which still goes on today everywhere, including the stolen labor of the women and children, illegals, being trafficked here in the U.S.A., and as an approved of method of converting one to Islam.
On Investing
Lots of books on personal financing and investing. Suze Orman and Dave Ramsay have some of the best starter books on controlling your personal finances, especially on the importance of saving. FOX Business News has some adequate programming on current events impacting the marketplace, Varney & Co. being one, however, one needs to know more than what they talk about, and the same with Bloomberg. Graham & Dodd’s Security Analysis ISBN 978-0-07-159253-6, is the premier work and the one that Warren Buffett credits for his success. Here are three easily readable and understandable works, and more are available through The Great Courses and from Hillsdale College.
Payne, Charles: Unstoppable Prosperity, ISBN 978-1-7329113-3-8
Babcock United Investment: Successful Investing, ISBN 0-671-64762-8
Fridson, Martin S.: The Little Book of Picking Top Stocks, ISBN 978-1-394-17661-8
Fullenkamp, Connel: (DVD from www.thegreatcourses.com ) Understanding Investments, ISBN 978-1-598-038323-X.
When you look at events, trends, and movements in their historical context, it is my opinion that it is all based on wealth.[6] Consider how from the economics viewpoint, the American Civil War was so unnecessary, wasteful, and destructive. With Robert Fulton’s steam engine doing so much work for so much less effort and cost, slavery as an economically feasible use of resources was rapidly dying. There were steam threshers, steam tractors, steam locomotives, and even steam carriages by 1860.
Thomas Jefferson commented on how the steam engine would change things fifty years before The War of 1861.
Slavery in the border states was mostly limited to personal/household slaves. Only in the Deep South were slaves still used, mostly for agriculture, which, if you look around today, picking crops is still mostly a human endeavor. Look at Hugo Chavez’ work in unionizing farm workers and what happened to him. Look at the recent results of the ICE raids on CA on the marijuana farms where illegal alien children were found to be harvesting pot plants.
On the blog, www.justplainbill.wordpress.com there is a ten-year-old bibliography for further reading, if you’re interested. That list has not been updated to include some of the works listed above. Neither list has much of what I would recommend for intermediate or advanced reading, as I simply have not gotten around to it, and I am still woefully behind on my own reading and writing.
The blog has recent posts, 12/2025 on wealth production and an open letter to Trump on suggested solutions.
An adequate source giving the European perspective on many things is: BBC History Magazine, www.historyextra.com . It is surprising to many Americans that the Europeans not only believe that they actually contributed to such events as WW II, NATO,[7] democracy, &c., but in fact contributed a lot more than the U.S.A. did in destroyed wealth and people. Objective history/reporting, what a concept.[8]
Government
There are loads of books, including my own,[9] on government, however, the best introduction and commentary to government, are the two BBC series, Yes, Minister, and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister.
Sources for purchase: Amazon.com for most of them; if you do not mind used books in various conditions, thriftbooks.com; Raico, Read, and the economics & economic history books, are available on mises.org/store.
Bill
©justplainbill 2026
Cite as A Starter’s Reading List, www.justplainbill.wordpress.com© 2026.
[1] It is interesting to note that prior to the 1946 G.I. Bill, and still in the U.K., a ‘liberal education’ meant that you learned Greek and Latin. In order to properly learn these ancient languages, students had to read all of these, and other works, in the original tongue, so, prior to the Korean War, a liberal education meant that you actually got an excellent education in business, government, and philosophy. Something no longer available in our CRT – DEI world.
[2] You have heard the opening: Gaul is divided into four parts.
[3] Keeping in mind that Lincoln’s 1863 State of the Union address included how on a federal budget of $13,000,000.00 (Thirteen Million dollars) he had a surplus even though the economy was in shambles and he was financing an extensive war.
[4] Think that I am kidding? This includes the blood shed of the French Revolution, The Napoleonic Wars, The (unconstitutional) War of 1861, the Czarist Cheka pogroms, the slaughter of Germans, Jews, Gypsy’s, & dissidents by The Third Reich, Stalin’s starving of over 20M “White Russians” & Ukrainians & the Gulags, Mao’s starving of over 30M, CCP official numbers, during the Cultural Revolution and the recent One Child policy of the CCP resulting in an estimated 33M forced abortions, and of minor note, Pol Pot’s killing 6M of his own people.
[5] Important to note that speeches made on the house/senate floors are NOT what is in the CR. Before publication, boards are sent to the members for correction +/or change before printing allowing them to change anything that they want to what they want to actually be on record.
[6] Money is not wealth, money, i.e., cash/currency/moolah/pounds/dollars/&c., is a medium of exchange falsely representing wealth created by productivity. Money, especially fiat currency, is subject to arbitrary re-valuations and pricing by governments, monopolists, and various bureaucracies, as well as criminal activity such as counterfeiting. All economic wealth is created by productivity of physical labor, strokes of genius, +/or intellectual innovation & invention. And then, there’s wealth of spirit, health, and well-being. Remember, an ounce of gold in 1700 is still one ounce of gold in 2024. One pound in 1700 was almost six months wages whereas one pound today will not buy you a loaf of bread. Ten years ago, one ounce of gold was ~$700, today it is over $4,700/troz and silver just passed $92/troz. See Rothbard’s, What has Government done to our Money?
[7] Well, at least until the fall of the U.S.S.R. Recent historical emphasis on the WW I Eastern Front, Poland, Russia, Türkiye &c, has been ignored in the West. Good reporting in BBC History.
[8] Notwithstanding the recent honesty & truth scandals at the BBC itself, these articles are pretty good if you look out for the green hoax and DEI/CRT crap, which crap is self-evident.
[9] The Heartland Plan, © 2008 Eloquent Press ISBN 978-1-934925-59-1