Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Mark Thornton opens with a warning from Jackson Hole: the Fed’s public mandate is a cover story. Its real job is to serve the big banks and the state by keeping deficits, debt, and financial markets afloat through the power of printability. New programs, wars, bailouts, and political promises all become easier when the Fed can create money with keyboard entries, while consumers pay later through higher prices, unemployment, and crisis.
On Side B, Thornton joins Wall Street Bullion to discuss gold, silver, commodity prices, the long-term consequences of paper money, the burden facing younger Americans, and the dangers of hyperinflation. He explains why boom-bust cycles begin with central bank credit expansion, why dollar-denominated assets become vulnerable in an inflationary environment, and why a bottom-up approach—sound money, savings, local resilience, and real assets—matters now.
See also "Tightwads at the Fed" (Minor Issues, Episode 56) mises.org/podcasts/minor-issues/tightwads-fed
0:00 Jackson Hole and the problem of printability
1:22 The Fed's real mandate: the banks and the state
3:25 How printability corrupts political behavior
4:55 The $2.5 trillion in repos nobody reported
6:04 Last year's quiet end to quantitative tightening
7:55 What Scott Bessent has been up to
9:45 Paying your mortgage with a credit card
11:00 WALL STREET BULLION — Why gold and silver are moving
15:40 Will the youth all be renters?
18:07 What happens if hyperinflation hits America
22:04 Is every recession manufactured by the Fed?
24:58 Guidance for the second half of 2026
2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray's 100th birthday—and we're celebrating by giving away free copies of Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure through September 30. Grab yours today at mises.org/issuesfree
20% off listener offer on the insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark's books: mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton.
Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues
Mark Thornton opens with a warning from Jackson Hole: the Fed’s public mandate is a cover story. Its real job is to serve the big banks and the state by keeping deficits, debt, and financial markets afloat through the power of printability. New programs, wars, bailouts, and political promises all become easier when the Fed can create money with keyboard entries, while consumers pay later through higher prices, unemployment, and crisis.
On Side B, Thornton joins Wall Street Bullion to discuss gold, silver, commodity prices, the long-term consequences of paper money, the burden facing younger Americans, and the dangers of hyperinflation. He explains why boom-bust cycles begin with central bank credit expansion, why dollar-denominated assets become vulnerable in an inflationary environment, and why a bottom-up approach—sound money, savings, local resilience, and real assets—matters now.
See also "Tightwads at the Fed" (Minor Issues, Episode 56) mises.org/podcasts/minor-issues/tightwads-fed
0:00 Jackson Hole and the problem of printability
1:22 The Fed's real mandate: the banks and the state
3:25 How printability corrupts political behavior
4:55 The $2.5 trillion in repos nobody reported
6:04 Last year's quiet end to quantitative tightening
7:55 What Scott Bessent has been up to
9:45 Paying your mortgage with a credit card
11:00 WALL STREET BULLION — Why gold and silver are moving
15:40 Will the youth all be renters?
18:07 What happens if hyperinflation hits America
22:04 Is every recession manufactured by the Fed?
24:58 Guidance for the second half of 2026
2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray's 100th birthday—and we're celebrating by giving away free copies of Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure through September 30. Grab yours today at mises.org/issuesfree
20% off listener offer on the insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark's books: mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton.
Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues
