The Scandal of Money: Why Wall Street Recovers but the Economy Never Does - Hardcover

"Why do we think governments know how to create money? They don't. George Gilder shows that money is time, and time is real. He is our best guide to our most fundamental economic problem." --Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies "Thirty-five years ago, George Gilder wrote Wealth and Poverty, the bible of the Reagan Revolution. With The Scandal of Money he may have written the road map to the next big boom." --Arthur B. Laffer, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States "Gilder pushes us to think about the government monopoly on money and makes a strong case against it. If you believe in economic freedom, you should read this book." --Senator Jim DeMint, president of The Heritage Foundation "George Gilder's brilliant The Scandal of Money will outlast the Federal Reserve." --James Grant, Grant's Interest Rate Observer "Science is prediction, which means economists should go the way of astrologers. Instead they give each other Nobel Prizes. Then George Gilder comes out with another wonderful book explaining our economic predicament using his information theory. Suddenly it's clear again what to do." --Bob Metcalfe, University of Texas, inventor of Ethernet "Whether you agree or disagree with his controversial call for currencies outside of government control (gold, bitcoin), this is one of the most important new books of the year." --Larry Kudlow, CNBC Senior Contributor, nationally syndicated radio host

If it's true that "it's the economy, stupid," the Democrats should be sitting ducks in 2016. After the crash of 2008 and the Great Recession, America got the weakest recovery in a century. The problem is that the Republicans are just as clueless as their opponents. The GOP can’t win the debate and the election with the same old shtick.

George Gilder, who revolutionized free-market thinking with his bestselling Wealth and Poverty, does it again with The Scandal of Money. Worn-out doctrines of monetary manipulation are smothering innovation, bloating the financial sector, and crushing the middle class.

Gilder's great insight is that the economy is an information system, driven by human creativity. That system depends on a reliable measuring stick of value, which we call "money." If that measuring stick becomes variable (like the post gold standard dollar), then information does not flow efficiently and creativity withers.

Our misplaced faith in the power of the Federal Reserve to conjure economic growth by manipulating the money supply has led to the capture of Wall Street by Washington and the consequent starvation of Main Street and Silicon Valley.

If we are to restore American prosperity, if the Republican Party the party of free markets is going to make a winning argument, we need to understand how money really works. The Scandal of Money is the most profound and practical analysis of politics and economics since Gilder’s own classic Wealth and Poverty.