Most interpretations of American free banking experiences in the nineteenth century focus on the failure of what is commonly believed to have been an experiment in unregulated banking. In this dissertation completed in 1988, economist Karen Y. Palasek advances the thesis that not only was free banking a strictly regulated system, but the reasons for its failure stem directly from the regulations themselves and from the regulatory ties between bond collateral requirements for competitively issued redeemable banknotes and a large volume of government debt which was essentially used as a reserve by free banks.
To illustrate the impediments presented by free banking laws, Palasek compares free banking experiences in New York to bank experiences in New England under the Suffolk System. She argues that the New England regional banking system that developed under the Suffolk was essentially a laissez-faire banking system, producing stability and safety for noteholders and depositors through market-driven behavioral constraints on the banks. New York, arguably the best example of American free banking, compares unfavorably on both stability and safety to the more laissez-faire system. The implications of this reexamination of free banking and the recent debates over the causes of instability in the free banking era have a bearing on modern reconsideration of deregulation and the self-regulating properties of a laissez-faire monetary system in the areas of stability, safety, and adequacy of banking facilities.
The Prehistory of Modern Economic Thought: The Aristotle in Austrian Theory
Action, Coordination, and Exchange: Voluntary Response to Stimuli in Profit-Seeking Endeavors
The Prehistory of Modern Economic Thought: The Aristotle in Austrian Theory
Action, Coordination, and Exchange: Voluntary Response to Stimuli in Profit-Seeking Endeavors
Does GNP Measure Growth and Welfare?
The question posed by the title to this lecture raises a number of deep problems of economic science.
Foreign Exchange Stabilization
The text of a speech given by University of California at Los Angeles professor of economics Benjamin M.
International Currency: Gold vs. Bancor or Unitas
Delivered before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, February 3, 1944.
End of the Era of Keynes?
Doctrinally, "Keynesianism" would have to be regarded merely as a recent, one-way swing of the pendulum such as the world has often experienced before this time in the direction of distinct overvaluation of the possibilities and effects of monetary manipulations and alterations.
Does GNP Measure Growth and Welfare?
The question posed by the title to this lecture raises a number of deep problems of economic science.
Foreign Exchange Stabilization
The text of a speech given by University of California at Los Angeles professor of economics Benjamin M.
International Currency: Gold vs. Bancor or Unitas
Delivered before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, New York City, February 3, 1944.
End of the Era of Keynes?
Doctrinally, "Keynesianism" would have to be regarded merely as a recent, one-way swing of the pendulum such as the world has often experienced before this time in the direction of distinct overvaluation of the possibilities and effects of monetary manipulations and alterations.
A Study Guide to Henry Hazlitt’s The Failure of the “New Economics”
This study guide is presented to assist the reader in following Hazlitt's deconstruction of Keynes.
A Study Guide to Henry Hazlitt’s The Failure of the “New Economics”
This study guide is presented to assist the reader in following Hazlitt's deconstruction of Keynes.
The Federal Reserve as a Cartelization Device
Murray Rothbard The Federal Reserve as a Cartelization Device
The Federal Reserve as a Cartelization Device
Murray Rothbard The Federal Reserve as a Cartelization Device
The Future
Chapter 29 of Capitalism and Commerce: Conceptual Foundations of Free Enterprise; “The Future”.
The Future
Chapter 29 of Capitalism and Commerce: Conceptual Foundations of Free Enterprise; “The Future”.
Alan Greenspan: Rand, Republicans, and Austrian Critics
From The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring 2005.
Missing the Mark: Salsman’s Review of the Great Depression
From The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies Vol. 9, No. 2, Spring 2008.
Dr. Palasek is Assistant Professor of Business at Barton College, and serves as the Director of Educational and Academic Programs at the John Locke Foundation.
The amazing fact is that the great majority of British people are not yet consciously aware that they are living in a very severe economic crisis.
