BankNotes Archive – April 2017

by L. Carlos Lara [Reprinted from the December 2014 edition of the Lara-Murphy-Report, LMR] There exists today a type of financial professional that is set apart from among the ranks of the three-quarters of a million licensed financial experts in the U.S. and Canada. These individuals may be attorneys, CPAs, … Read more

by L. Carlos Lara [Reprinted from the December 2013 edition of the Lara-Murphy-Report, LMR] We all know that long ago the Church condemned usury. As a result a special monetary device was conceived that allowed religious institutions to borrow great sums of money from the public without committing this sin. … Read more

by Bill Wirtz Doris Leuthard. That’s the name of the incumbent Swiss president in case you wondered or might need it in a general knowledge quiz any time soon. But how come a country this well known on the international stage happens to have such an unknown executive? The Swiss … Read more

by C. Jay Engel ECB Executive Board member Peter Praet recently gave a speech in Brussels. The underlying theme captures the convenient positioning of world central banks. They want to be seen as saviors of collapsing financial markets, but neither the cause of the instability nor the continued struggle for … Read more

by Andrew N. Smith Rhetoric has recently trumped reality. It has become a misconceived bit of common “knowledge” that the United States of America is a bastion of free trade. Little could be further from the truth. The “freest” nation on earth, as we are taught to believe, imposes a … Read more

by Jay Stooksberry In a previous life, I worked in sales. But not just your everyday, run-of-the-mill brand of sales: I worked in a sleazy industry that championed predatory lending practices and distorted the pricing of its lackluster product, which often sent my clients spiraling down a rabbit hole of … Read more

By Leonard E. Read Note – Frequent readers of BANKNOTES are aware of my relationship with Leonard E. Read and my admiration for his works during his lifetime. In the following issues I will be sharing his book, VISION, one chapter per month. It was written in 1978. What a … Read more

by Alex Salter What is the role of human freedom in morality? It’s a question I’ve been pondering and researching since graduate school. C.S. Lewis once explained the different aspects of morality by using the metaphor of a flotilla. Every ship must be well run on its own, but each … Read more