Philipp Bagus > Quotes

“(...) By asking for Russian help, Iceland was hoping to shock its former allies into rushing to its defense...

(...) In fact, for many Icelanders, the announcement that the anti-terrorism legislation would be used against them “was tantamount to a declaration of war. At one stroke Britain had placed Iceland on the same level as Al Quaeda, even though it was a fellow NATO partner, and crippled what seemed to Reykjavik to be a healthy bank.”13”
― Philipp Bagus, Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse

“I should also point out that in the case of a price deflation, it may well be that factor prices (costs) fall faster than a company’s selling prices. What is essential for the entrepreneur is the price differential, which may increase in times of falling prices. Indeed, it is a neoclassical error to believe that prices follow, and are determined by, costs. It is the other way around, as Böhm-Bawerk (1891) points out. It is costs that follow expected future prices because entrepreneurs bid for factors of production in anticipation of the expected price of the good they intend to sell in the future (taking into account all factors that may influence this price). Thus, costs logically move before selling prices. It is the task of entrepreneurs to anticipate price changes like all relevant other future changes (Bagus 2006). Of course, entrepreneurs may err; then they suffer losses.”
― Philipp Bagus, Full Reserve Banking versus the Real Bills Doctrine: A Critique of the Monetary Theory of J.R. Rallo

“Con el fin de crear los medios para sufragar el enorme y siempre creciente gasto público, necesario, sobre todo, para financiar el «Estado del bienestar», los gobiernos, en lugar de aumentar los impuestos, optan por la vía del endeudamiento. Así, los ciudadanos no perciben directamente las cargas fiscales. La relación entre el endeudamiento público y sus consecuencias —redistribución de los ingresos y los patrimonios, así como pérdida del poder adquisitivo— se enmascara con habilidad. Así se aclara por qué a los políticos les gusta tanto el papel moneda y quieren y querrán aferrarse a él con todos los medios que tengan a su alcance. Porque un endeudamiento público que presenta las dimensiones actuales sólo es posible en un sistema de papel moneda monopolizado por el Estado.”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa

“Las teorías de economía política y política social que se han ido imponiendo en los últimos decenios son como productos malos; son teorías malas. Las ideas que se propagan son malas. Para que funcionen, es necesario hacer una publicidad continua y agresiva a su favor, utilizando métodos propagandísticos ilícitos. Y debe hacerse de forma regular, hasta que todo el mundo crea realmente que las teorías difundidas son las únicas teorías acertadas.”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa

“«no te fíes de ninguna estadística que no hayas falseado tú mismo».”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa

“la gente establece una conexión entre gastos públicos e impuestos, pero ninguna entre gasto público y producción de masas monetarias y su efecto de rebote: el encarecimiento. Cuando el monopolio del dinero cubre con ello los costes de las guerras, los Estados del bienestar o proyectos de prestigio como el cambio energético, enmascara los efectos de una política que, de lo contrario, el pueblo no apoyaría. Así”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa

“Even if we assume that banks do issue “on-sight credits” with collection rights and not demand deposits, as long as these “on-sight credits” are considered perfectly available and equivalent to demand deposits, all traditional legal principles that apply to demand deposits must also apply to “on-sight credits.” Changing the name of demand deposits to “on-sight credits” does not change their nature. Legal principles apply to contracts that are equivalent even though different names are used. For instance, a contract that states that if it rains 25 percent of days there will be a payment of X is equivalent to a contract that says that if it rains 1 out of 4 days there will be a payment of X. The same principles apply to both contracts.”
― Philipp Bagus, Full Reserve Banking versus the Real Bills Doctrine: A Critique of the Monetary Theory of J.R. Rallo

“(...) workers could increase their cash balances and hold on to the newly created fiduciary media without increasing their spending and bidding up consumer-goods prices. Or they could save the money and lend it to the company that pays down the real bill after month three. Or they could buy the investment project from the entrepreneur. In this case, workers reduce their consumption and save all their additional fiduciary-media income. Then the investment becomes backed by real savings. Yet, if workers spend even a part of the fiduciary media created by the real bill credit expansion on consumer goods, then consumer-goods prices will rise relative to capital-goods prices, manifesting intertemporal discoordination.”
― Philipp Bagus, Full Reserve Banking versus the Real Bills Doctrine: A Critique of the Monetary Theory of J.R. Rallo

“Resumen La inflación conduce a una redistribución de la renta y el patrimonio dentro de la sociedad. La inflación favorece a los primeros que disponen de la masa monetaria recién creada. Éstos se benefician. Pueden adquirir bienes a precios que todavía no han variado. Por el contrario, los que disfrutan del dinero nuevo más tarde —o nunca— son los perjudicados. Para cuando puedan disponer de unos ingresos adicionales, los precios de bienes y servicios ya habrán subido.”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa

“(...) Militarily, Germany was vastly inferior to France and Great Britain and was still occupied by foreign troops. And after the war, the allies had reeducated the Germans in the direction of socialism, progressivism and pacifism—to ward off any military opposition.”
― Philipp Bagus, The Tragedy of the Euro

“(...) Via simulation,... the assumptions were very restricted and seem to be chosen to get the desired result: all banks are sound except those that everyone knew before that they are unsound. Curiously, the Irish banks that a few months later were bailed out by the Irish governments passed the test. Yet, for the moment, a total collapse of the system was averted and the Euro recovered some of its losses during the summer.”
― Philipp Bagus, The Tragedy of the Euro

“Banks issue perfect money substitutes that are accepted as money proper. The factor owners paid with newly created fiduciary media do not have to wait to spend. They can directly use these money substitutes. They do not have to redeem them into money proper before using them. There is no renunciation of consumption at the moment of the creation of the fiduciary media on the part of the bank.

Just because someone holds on to the fiduciary media, it does not mean that real savings in society has increased. What would Rallo think about a money counterfeiter? If a money counterfeiter produces counterfeit notes and the money circulates, then the holders of the counterfeit notes will, according to Rallo’s argument, also forgo the disposal of present goods. They could have bought consumer goods with these counterfeit notes. If the holders do not use the notes immediately, it does not mean there is more real savings. And if they spend them and other people start to hold them, there is not more savings either. It is absurd to claim that the counterfeit notes in the pockets of the people “finance” the investment of the counterfeiter because they could have tried to redeem them against money proper. There is no more real savings; there is just “forced savings,” as prices tend to rise. And there is redistribution.”
― Philipp Bagus, Full Reserve Banking versus the Real Bills Doctrine: A Critique of the Monetary Theory of J.R. Rallo

“Cuando los pueblos se dirigen ciegos hacia su fin, hay que intentar aclararles las ideas. Pero si no oyen, ya sea porque están sordos o porque la voz de quien advierte es demasiado débil, tampoco se les puede obligar a tomar el buen camino mediante ardides tácticos y demagógicos. Con demagogia quizá se pueda destruir la sociedad, pero, desde luego, no construirla.”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa

“Mises escribió sobre sus teorías del socialismo: Creo que las teorías que he desarrollado en estos trabajos son incontrovertibles. Fue precisamente esta incontestabilidad la que desató en seguida la enemistad del bando socialista. Y también del nacionalsocialismo, que se propagó por Alemania en los años treinta. Dicho sea de paso, el nacionalsocialismo y el comunismo no se contraponen, sino que están hermanados en espíritu. Son meros competidores. Los dos tienen en común el totalitarismo y el rechazo de un sistema económico libre.”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa

“(...) the question still remains: Why did Icelandic banks engage so heavily in this risky practice?

The answer is straightforward. Like banks in other countries, Icelandic banks enjoyed guarantees by the government to bail them out should their bets on the market turn out to have been wrong. But while this guarantee is merely implicitly assumed in most developed economies, the Central Bank of Iceland had committed itself explicitly to providing this function...”
― Philipp Bagus, Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse

“no existe ninguna ley natural que haga avanzar siempre a la civilización y mejore continuamente el nivel de vida. Craso error. Sin las condiciones generales apropiadas, como la propiedad privada, la libertad individual y el dinero bueno, lo mismo se puede avanzar que retroceder.”
― Philipp Bagus, Por qué otros se hacen cada vez más ricos a tu costa