The attempts to create a double standard of gold and silver failed lamentably. It was this failure that generated the gold standard — a manifestation of a crushing defeat of the governments and their cherished doctrines, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

With an inflationary or deflationary policy, a government does not promote the public welfare, the commonweal, or the interests of the whole nation. It merely favors one or several groups of the population at the expense of other groups, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

Salmasius pointed out that moneylending was a business like any other, and thereby entitled to charge a market price. Competition lowers the price. If one doesn't like high interest rates, the more usurers the better, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

Congress decreed that gold and silver dollars should be interchangeable and put upon the Treasury a mandate to keep them equal in value. How? By what magic? Why, by the magic of a phrase, writes Garet Garrett (1878–1954).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

John Calvin's main contribution to the usury question was in having the courage to dump the prohibition altogether. He had only contempt for the Aristotelian argument that money is sterile, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

The governments of almost all countries are engaged in a campaign against the capitalists. They are intent upon expropriating them by means of taxation and monetary measures, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

The gold standard is not a game but a social institution. Its working does not depend on the preparedness of any people to observe some arbitrary rules. It is controlled by the operation of inexorable economic law, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

From backstage, the New Deal was an incredible confusion, unable, as Mr. Flynn thinks, to make sense even to itself; and the man least competent to make sense of it was the president, writes Garet Garrett (1878–1954).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

Mises illustrates his case with a review of the fall of Germany, from the collapse of classical liberalism to the rise of nationalism and socialism. But Germany merely constitutes an early example of the things to come, writes Hans F. Sennholz (1922–2007).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

If composers could set still-unmatched records of productivity without copyrights while earning a living, writers could do this in an environment that did not give them the hope of forever subsisting off past accomplishments, writes Gennady Stolyarov II.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by the author.