John Rubino on negative interest rates

Interest rates are the price of money, and as such they tell investors, entrepreneurs and consumers what to do. Low interest rates generally say “buy, build, consume, take risks” while high rates say “save, sell, conserve, wait.” But zero or negative rates? Are they just an extreme version of low rates or is there a qualitative difference? Everyone has a theory about this but in the absence of historical precedent, we’ll have to wait and see.

~ John Rubino, "Lowest Interest Rates EVER," DollarCollapse.com, February 24, 2015

Ron Kruszewski: "Inflation would be welcome"

Today, inflation would be welcome and it's nowhere in sight.

~ Ron Kruszewski, CEO of Stifel Financial, as appeared on CNBC, February 24, 2015

Guido Hülsmann on how money printing is not the source of wealth

The classical economists had rejected the notion that overall monetary spending — in current jargon: aggregate demand — is a driving force of economic growth. The true causes of the wealth of nations are non-monetary factors such as the division of labor and the accumulation of capital through savings. Money comes into play as an intermediary of exchange and as a store of value. Money prices are also fundamental for business accounting and economic calculation. But money delivers all these benefits irrespective of its quantity. A small money stock provides them just as well as a bigger one. It is therefore not possible to pull a society out of poverty, or to make it more affluent, by increasing the money stock. By contrast, such objectives can be achieved through technological progress, through increased frugality, and through a greater division of labor. They can be achieved through the liberalization of trade and the encouragement of savings.

~ Jörg Guido Hülsmann, "Why the Austrian Understanding of Money and Banks Is So Important," Mises.org, February 18, 2015

Will Durant on the importance of trade

The crossroads of trade are the meeting place of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs; diversities beget conflict, comparison, thought; superstitions cancel one another, and reason begins.

~ Will Durant, The Life of Greece, Volume II of The Story of Civilization (1939)