A history of money and banking in the United States

the long version

Shows through detailed historical investigation how sound money and banking have been the font of prosperity and freedom in American history, and how loose credit, paper money, and inflation have led to social and economic calamity. In chronicling how the gold standard was attacked and destroyed, Rothbard departs from the conventional method of merely assembling money-supply data to name the special interests that benefited from the destruction. Rothbard's story is informed by the Austrian School of economics.--From publisher description.