Money, Markets, and Democracy

Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the ways that politics and financial markets impact one another. In this relationship, politics is the ultimate controlling force. The kinds and prices of financial instruments that get traded and the individuals and institutions that get to trade them, not to mention the rules under which everyone trades, are all matters decisively influenced by an array of political variables - sometimes for the better, but all too often for the worse. The fault for this political skewing of the markets chiefly lies with democracy. Through its commitment to equality and its inclination towards fiscal profligacy, democracy hinders the markets from acting as a greater force for social good. To fix this skewing of finance, democracy’s troubling tendencies must be squarely faced and curbed by a return to its monetary roots. Democracy must reinstall gold at the monetary foundations of our financial markets.