Jörg Guido Hülsmann's Ethics of Money Production

"The economics of money production will lead us quite naturally to considerations of a juridical, moral, historical, and political nature."

Natural Monies

"We may call any kind of money that comes into use by the voluntary cooperation of acting persons "natural money.""

Said differently, a natural money is a generally accepted medium of exchange that is produced and used under the respect of private property rights

"A free market in money production is ethically superior to its logical alternative: money production based on legal exemptions and privileges."

"Freedom of choice assures a grass-roots democratic selection of the best available monies - the natural monies."

"Whenever people are not free to choose the best available monies, a different type of money comes into existence - forced money."

"Legal monopolies, legal-tender laws, and the legalized suspension of payments have unwittingly become instruments of social injustice. They breed inflation, irresponsibility, and an illicit distribution of income, usually from the poor to the rich."

"The first and most fundamental principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property"

Pope Leo XIII

"In short the popes championed the distinction between justice and morals -between the right to own property and the moral obligation to make good use of this property. A violation of one's moral obligation could not possibly justify the slightest infringement of property rights"

"In all known historical cases, paper money has come into existence through government-sponsored breach of contract and other violations of private-property rights. It has never been a creature of the free market."

"The use of paper money carries the risk of total and permanent value annihilation. This risk does not exist in the case of commodity money, which always carries a positive price and which can therefore always be re-monetized."

Since the creation of money may reduce its relative value over time, modes of production must balance property rights of existing money holders as well as those money producers. Market competition is the most fair approach to balance these competing interests.

Constant inflation incentivizes debt growth as income tends to rise faster than debt servicing costs, which introduces the risk of debt-deflationary spirals when inevitable hiccups in growth arrive.

"Towering debts are incompatible with financial self-reliance and thus they tend to weaken self-reliance also in all other spheres. The debt-ridden individual eventually adopts the habit of running to others for help"

"The welfare state socializes the costs of morally reckless behavior and therefore gives it far greater prominence than it would have in a free society."

"Fiat inflation is a juggernaut of social, economic, cultural, and spiritual destruction."