Pertinent Category: Sound Money Project

The Sound Money Project was founded in January 2009 to conduct research and promote awareness about monetary stability and financial privacy. The project is comprised of leading academics and practitioners in money, banking, and macroeconomics. It offers regular commentary and in-depth analysis on monetary policy, alternative monetary systems, financial markets regulation, cryptocurrencies, and the history of monetary and macroeconomic thought. For the latest on sound money issues, subscribe to our working paper series and follow along on Twitter or Facebook.

Advisory Board: Steve H. Hanke, Jerry L. Jordan, Lawrence H. White
Director: William J. Luther
Senior Fellows: Nicolás Cachanosky, Gerald P. DwyerJoshua R. Hendrickson, Thomas L. Hogan, Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr., Alexander W. Salter
Fellows: J.P. Koning

“Free Banking and Information Asymmetry”

– July 21, 2010

“A traditional argument against free banking is that it will collapse because of information externalities: it is impossible for depositors to tell whether a high deposit rate offered by a bank is due to its high efficiency or risky lending strategy. T …

READ MORE

“Free Banking and Monetary Control”

– July 21, 2010

“Were free banking to reemerge today, it would probably be based, not on a gold standard, but on irredeemable paper (‘fiat’) base money issued by a former or extant central bank. Under this form of free banking, the price level is no longer given, and …

READ MORE

“Fed’s Duke:Time For Review Of Community Reinvestment Act”

– July 20, 2010

“Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke called Monday for a thorough review and update of a federal law that limits discriminatory credit practices in low-income neighborhoods. “Today’s financial landscape is vastly different from the one in which the …

READ MORE

“The Gold Standard: A Principled Case”

– July 20, 2010

“In recent months, we have witnessed fierce arguments between, on the one side, those who defend the current system of “fiat money,” in which, as John Maynard Keynes stated, money “is created and issued by the State, but is not convertible by law into …

READ MORE

Summer Reading II

– July 19, 2010

Summer reading is eclectic and before getting to my second installment of notes on This Time is Different, I want to recommend a non-economics book. A Chance in Hell by Jim Michaels is a riveting account of how the military and political situation turn …

READ MORE

“Fed Nominees Support Expanded Duties”

– July 16, 2010

“Hours before the Senate approved a far-reaching overhaul of Wall Street regulations on Thursday, President Obama’s three nominees to the board of the Federal Reserve said they were prepared to help the central bank handle its vastly expanded duties to …

READ MORE

“The Uncertainty Principle”

– July 15, 2010

“So Republicans Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins now say they’ll provide the last crucial votes to get the Dodd-Frank financial reform through the Senate. Hmmm. Could this be Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s secret plan to take back the Se …

READ MORE

“Economic Recovery Slower Than Expected”

– July 14, 2010

“Federal Reserve leaders marked down their expectations for growth and inflation last month, concluding that the economic recovery is proceeding more slowly than they had thought in the spring but that the slowdown did not warrant new policy actions. B …

READ MORE

“Finance Overhaul Casts Long Shadow on the Plains”

– July 14, 2010

“Farmer Jim Kreutz uses derivatives to soften the blow should the price of feed corn drop before harvest. His brother-in-law, feedlot owner Jon Reeson, turns to them to hedge the price of his steer. The local farmers’ co-op uses derivatives to finance …

READ MORE

Money and Banking: The American Experience

– July 14, 2010

The style of Money and Banking: The American Experience is one of article and comment. An author provides an article on the issues of money and banking in the U.S. and another academic provides a comment on said article. The table of contents is as fol …

READ MORE

Gold Wars

– July 14, 2010

“This book is much more than a chronicle of gold wars. It is also an account of the historical failure of ‘Esperanto money.’ Over a hundred years ago, a Polish physician by the name of Ludovik Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917) created a synthetic language i …

READ MORE

Getting Off Track

– July 14, 2010

“Throughout history, financial crises have always been caused by excesses—frequently monetary excesses—which lead to a boom and an inevitable bust. In our current crisis it was a housing boom and bust that in turn led to financial turmoil in the United …

READ MORE