Money and Banks

There are some reasons to be optimistic about the future of free market money. On the other hand, the world's governments will fight true currency competition every step of the way.

Euro governments are planning to use the banking system for widespread bailouts in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdowns. This could bring about a new financial crisis.

After the Great War, Austrian cities and towns began issuing their own money. The Germans tried something similar, but without the voluntary and decentralized aspects of the Austrian model. German disaster ensued.

It is possible to conceive of a world where fractional reserve banking is understood by both banker and depositor and involves no deception or fraud. But in that world, deposits cease to be money and become complex credit securities.

The COVID panic gave the world's regimes a new reason to claim that physical cash should be outlawed. But this is just one of many strategies now in play to end the relative privacy and freedom cash provides.

It's easy to dismiss MMT out of hand, but the impulse to create something from nothing resides deep in the human psyche.

It is possible to conceive of a world where fractional reserve banking is understood by both banker and depositor and involves no deception or fraud. But in that world, deposits cease to be money and become complex credit securities.

Central bank policies that rely on ultralow interest rates have been shown to bring economic stagnation. Unfortunately, central bankers don't seem to have any other ideas.

The largest fiscal and monetary support plan since WW II has been instigated with two dangerous collateral effects: the rise of zombie companies and the collapse of small businesses and startups.

Central bank policies that rely on ultralow interest rates have been shown to bring economic stagnation. Unfortunately, central bankers don't seem to have any other ideas.