Our newest recommended book for subscribers. . .

THE END OF MONEY

And The Struggle for Financial Privacy

by Dr. Richard Rahn

"1998 may be remembered as the year in which the power of central bankers reached its zenith. They should enjoy their moment of glory: it will not last."

---The Economist, November 14, 1998

What passes today for a "free enterprise" system is in many ways anything but. While out of one side of its mouth Washington praises private initiative, free trade, capital mobility, entrepreneurship and more, its actions show something different. Taxes and regulations are at historic highs. Some are more equal than others when it comes to risk-taking as well; while we’re supposed to live in a financial world where there are risks to go along with potential rewards, some parties are exempted by government and financial regulators from the former. The near-disaster of the bailed-out Long Term Capital Management is the best recent example. At an even more elementary level, centralized banking--the lynch pin of the entire system--appears more and more to be an aging anachronism. Structural problems in the world economy are getting worse; at the same time, those who argue for genuine free enterprise--including in the field of money and banking itself--are becoming much more important parts of the debate.

Dr. Richard Rahn, author of the brand new book, The End of Money--And The Struggle for Financial Privacy, is one such advocate.

I had the great honor this past fall of being introduced to Dr. Rahn by a Washington attorney and friend who is a subscriber to The National Investor. Dr. Rahn (whose great Washington Times op-ed piece on Russia’s mess I had just read the prior morning) is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute, and president of Washington-based Novecon, Ltd. Additionally, and perhaps most noteworthy, he served in the Reagan Administration as one of the highest-ranking economists of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

One of the first things that struck me about Dr. Rahn when we visited both at his office and over lunch a few days after our initial meeting was that he is one of apparently few libertarians who really is one. Too many have jumped on the banking and multinational-controlled bandwagon of free trade--which is anything but in most cases--and have blindly supported it (bail-outs and all.) By contrast, Dr. Rahn does not segregate out certain parties for special treatment in his vision of a truly free world economy and monetary framework. Thus, by his reckoning as he so eloquently lays out in the pages of The End of Money, those entities--governments and central banks--which have had virtually monopolies over economics, credit and monetary creation will shortly begin to lose them.

Dr. Rahn’s understanding of both economics and technology makes for a potent combination. I’ve previously mentioned my own feelings that, one of these days, the glue that central planners are using to keep their "game" together will no longer work--but that, out of the carnage of their failed policies, we could see true free enterprise and prosperity emerge. One of the concepts I’ve eagerly promoted is Ithaca HOURS, the hugely successful effort of folks in Cayuga County, New York to have their own private, interest-free scrip. Dr. Rahn--who speaks well of this and similar efforts--takes the HOURS concept a big step further, and suggests that the Internet and the new "digital age" are making possible the electronic equivalents of the non-governmental Ithaca money system on a literally unfathomable scale.

He predicts that both the decay of central banking and the politically and technologically-emboldened move towards decentralization will see an irreversible move towards the denationalization of currency itself. Those of you who are students of such historical facts know that, even in America’s early history, individual companies and local banks all circulated their own forms of money of one kind or another. The marketplace determined whose was got--and whose wasn’t. For the most part, no Big Brother of a central bank was around to bail out one or more that made mistakes, or whose individual monetary instruments suddenly came into question. Unlike the controlled system we have lived under since, those days saw much more of a free enterprise monetary system.

Dr. Rahn sees these types of private "currencies"--now largely digital--making a comeback, and explains all of the reasons why this move is irreversible, and why it will ultimately be for the greater good. "The conclusions in this book," he writes in the Preface, "are not based on a particular ideology, but upon the empirical evidence of what works and what does not, and where the new technologies appear to be taking us."

The critical question as this new monetary world unfolds centers on how governments--including our own--will react to a new quest for economic freedom that, among other things, will mean that many of their present tax policies will become useless. "The state has already lost the technological battle," Rahn pens. "The question now is whether the state will face this technological reality and redesign its tax and financial systems, as well as anti-crime practices, to allow people to do what they will do in a lawful manner." Yes, government may continue fighting a losing battle against a population wanting more freedom over their financial transactions and privacy but, Rahn warns, "(that) will result in a citizenry further alienated from and hostile to a government that becomes more oppressive. Such governments are doomed. This book is a plea to avoid such an outcome."

THE MONETARY WORLD OF THE 21st CENTURY!

Richard Rahn’s book is MY FREE GIFT TO YOU when we receive your subscription for a two year term to The National Investor.

What they’re saying about The End of Money. . .

"The End of Money and the Struggle for Financial Privacy is a book I’m both proud and excited to recommend, for no other book in America today so completely lays out the vision as well as the mechanics of a future, free monetary structure."

---Chris Temple, Editor--The National Investor, &
        Vice President--The Foundation for Economic Liberty

"Richard Rahn is on to something here that could revolutionize business and government both. His vision is radical, liberating and readable. It will find its way into national debates on taxes and spending sooner than one might guess. And it will spark many an excited argument around boardroom tables, and even kitchen tables, before then."

---George Gilder--Author of Wealth and Poverty, Microcosm and Telecosm.

"The End of Money is a call to arms to defend individual liberty. Rahn demonstrates how inextricably linked financial privacy is to our fundamental freedoms, and why we must fight for it."

---Mack F. Mattingly--former U.S. Senator (R-GA) and Ambassador

"Richard Rahn persuasively argues how the coming digital money revolution will make lower tax rates and radical tax simplification inevitable."

---Jack Kemp--former Congressman (R-NY)
          Co-Founder of Empower America

To subscribe to The National Investor:

* Go to our Secure On-line order form, to order with your MC, VISA, Discover or AmEx

* Print out our on-line order form, and mail it in with your payment

* Call our toll-free order line, at (888) 345-8869.

to Home