The Mystery of Banking

By: Murray N. Rothbard

Narrated by: Jim Vann

Talk about great timing. Rothbard's extraordinary book unravels the mystery of banking: What is legitimate enterprise and what is a government-backed shell game that can't last? His explanation is clear enough for anyone to follow and yet precise and rigorous enough to be the best textbook for college classes on the topic. This is because its expository clarity - in its history and theory - is essentially unrivaled.

Most notably, he uses the T-account method of explaining the relationship between deposits and loans, showing the inherent instability of fractional reserve banking and how it sets the stage for centralization, inflation, and the boom-bust cycle.

But there is more here. It is an explanation of money's origins and its meaning in the free market. The abstract theory is here but always with real application in history and in modern banking practice. Never does a paragraph go by without an example drawn from his massive knowledge of the subject.

Even further, he explains the integration between microeconomics and the business cycle. As Douglas French writes in the introduction: "Although first published 25 years ago, Murray Rothbard's The Mystery of Banking continues to be the only book that clearly and concisely explains the modern fractional reserve banking system, its origins, and its devastating effects on the lives of every man, woman, and child. It is especially appropriate in a year that will see: a surge in bank failures, central banks around the globe bailing out failed commercial and investment banks, double-digit inflation rates in many parts of the world and hyperinflation completely destroying Zimbabwe's economy, that a new edition of Rothbard's classic work be published and made available through the efforts of Lew Rockwell and the staff at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Priced affordably for students and laymen interested in the vagaries of banking and how inflation and business cycles are created."

©1983, 2008 Ludwig von Mises Institute (P)2016 Ludwig von Mises Instiutute

I Appreciate This Book

It is the concern of every responsible person to acquire a livelihood. The means of doing so are quite varied, and in my reflections; I have never been able to fully appreciate banking as a means to that end.

Thankfully, this volume on banking has been skillfully written so as too be accessible to a lay reader/listener. Though I still have some questions, The Mystery of Banking has answered many others, and this to my complete satisfaction.

Should be required reading/listening.

Excellent book that is still applicable 40 years later. Fascinating to hear the parallels between our current monetary system and those of the past that have failed.

Fantastic book

this book is excellent, it shows the biggest fraud in human history, that is, the industry of banking and its fractional reserve system, created by the state. With this book you can completely understand how the government and the banks rob you every day. After reading this book, you will finally understand that the government is the biggest enemy of humans and it s the main factor of the existence of poverty and undevelopement.

I don’t agree with the poor reviews of this book

I think this is a fantastic book for anyone entering into the economic field searching for an understanding of banking and how or why banks do things like open-market operations, keeping deposits at the Fed, fractional reserve banking and the English gold smiths, or other trivial knowledge that may be hard to process. I would recommend this book! I just completely disagree with the other reviews.

I learned this in my school economics

The first two chapters were very boring and not very informative. I would not recommend this to a person who has had an economics class.