Mises Institute contributor George Ford Smith publishes new essay criticizing central banking, drawing comparisons to consumer pricing

A new essay by George Ford Smith, distributed via Zero Hedge, renews a long-running policy debate about the role of central banks in the economy. The piece, titled “Central Banking: The Scourge Of Civilization,” was published on August 25, 2026, and presents a critique of central banking from the standpoint of how money and credit are created and passed through the economy.

According to the essay’s framing, central banking functions as a source of distortion rather than a neutral backstop for markets, and the author argues that this process affects prices paid by consumers and the distribution of costs across the economy. The article does not announce any legislative or regulatory action, nor does it cite a specific pending government policy change in the provided text.

The essay also includes an illustrative comparison involving consumer products. It describes Apple building and selling iPhones and then asks what would happen if Apple could “skip the build part and sell only the phone,” arguing that eliminating steps would produce “enormous” savings for the producer and potentially for customers.

In the same account, Smith links that hypothetical savings logic to the broader question of whether central banking introduces avoidable layers between economic output and the final costs borne by consumers. The comparison is presented as an analogy rather than a report of any actual Apple business change or any specific banking reform bill.

Because the available material is limited to the published essay description and does not include excerpts, data tables, or policy citations, there is no way to verify from the provided record whether the author addresses specific institutions, statutory authorities, or particular central-bank programs. The episode therefore functions as a policy commentary and text-based argument rather than a documented government decision.

For readers tracking central-bank policy developments, the next step would be to locate the underlying essay text and any referenced sources, and to distinguish between argumentation about monetary structures and separate developments such as Federal Reserve rules, Treasury actions, or Congressional legislation that would require formal administrative or legislative records.