Sound money, then, according to Mises, is what the market freely chooses to be money, and what remains under the control of its owner, safe from coercive meddling and intervention. For as long as the money was controlled by anyone other than the owner, whoever controlled it would always face too strong an incentive to pilfer the value of the money through inflation or confiscation, and to use it as a political tool to achieve their political goals at the expense of the holders.
