Jacob G. Hornberger is president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, which he founded in 1989, and is a regular writer for the FFF's publication, Freedom Daily. Fluent in Spanish, Hornberger has advanced libertarianism through delivering speeches and engaging in debates about libertarianism across the US as well as Canada, England, Eastern Europe and South America.

The Real Bills Doctrine states that issuing money in exchange for real bills is not inflationary. That was the decried doctrine of the old bank directors of 1810. It stated that "as long as a bank issues its notes only in the discount of good bills, at not more than sixty days, it cannot go wrong in issuing as many as the public wants." The Doctrine is debated because it is in direct opposition to the Quantity Theory of Money, which states that "money supply has a direct, positive level with the price level."

The book begins with economics, and explains why Austrian economics matters, how the Federal Reserve brings on the business cycle, why we need private property and free enterprise, the unrecognized glories of the capitalist economy, and why the gold standard is still the best monetary system.