Money and Banks

It seems odd that economists would find the idea of falling prices to be a bad thing. Likewise, it is peculiar that policymakers would fear deflation and be willing to take drastic measures to insure

During the late nineteenth century, when silver agitation threatened the gold standard in the United States, gold bonds offered investors some protection from the uncertainties concerning the monetary standard in the United States.

Complete with an extensive new preface, the republication of Larry Sechrest’s Free Banking is well-timed. The new preface is an important contribution to the ongoing debate within Austrian circles

The theory of monetary disequilibrium, as espoused by Selgin (1988), White (1989), Horwitz (2000), and others, has been used to justify the issuance of fiduciary media under a system of fractional reserve “free” banking. 

It is important that Austrians continue in their endeavor to convince colleagues, policymakers, and the public about the instabilities inherent to a fractional-reserve system. 

The State applies itself to loading everybody’s brain with prejudices, and everybody’s heart with sentiments favorable to the spirit of anarchy, war, and hatred;

In this paper the theory of optimum currency areas (OCA) is presented, and then I will attempt to prove:

1. The OCA theory is nonoperational and irrelevant in dealing with the present international monetary situation.
2. The basic postulates of OCA theory are internally inconsistent and incompatible with economic theory.

Between 1830 and 1903, Sweden experienced one of the longest and most successful free-banking periods in history. During this period, private note issuing banks were allowed and prospered. 

Selgin (2009) questions the practicality of 100 percent reserve requirements applied to small change. He interprets the private coinage of small change in 18th century England as embodying fiduciary media

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the role of monetary policy in the determination of interest rates and consumption as developed by capital-based macroeconomics