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. The Sound Money Project also hosts an annual essay contest. 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, Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr., Lawrence H. White
Director: William J. Luther
Senior Fellows: Gerald P. Dwyer, Joshua R. Hendrickson
Fellows: Scott A. Burns, James L. Caton, Nicolás Cachanosky, Judge Glock, Alexander W. Salter
Contributors: Brian C. Albrecht, J.P. Koning
Does Libra Threaten Monetary Sovereignty?
There is no inherent reason that a global payments system run by technology companies must elide national regulations. If PayPal manages to serve a global community while complying with the rules of all the countries in which it operates, can’t Libra do the same?
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The Fed’s Program of Two-Stage Sterilization
In the first stage, it removes a significant amount of base money from circulation by paying interest on excess reserves. In the second stage, it manipulates other accounts at the Federal Reserve that influence the quantity of base money in circulation.
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The Economics of Seigniorage on Excess Reserves
The greater the unwinding of the balance sheet, the greater will be the difficulty of servicing federal debt. This problem is on the horizon. It will be met by a combination of dollar devaluation, reduction of the budget, or default.
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Negative Interest Rate Policy and the Federal Debt
If President Trump wants to lower the real cost of government debt, he should urge the Federal Reserve to increase nominal interest rates — not decrease them.
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Don’t Say Unbanked; Say Differently Banked
Prepaid debit cards issued by retailers like Walmart, the federal government, and banks like Green Dot and Comerica are providing unbanked Americans with a different but fully functional and cost-effective connection to the national payments system.
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What’s the Right Inflation Rate?
There is nothing magical about a 2% inflation target. Recognizing that is a much-needed first step toward better Fed policy.
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Who Should Provide Central Bank Digital Currency?
I can think of just one reason why a central bank might want to get into the business of issuing digital currency: to provide privacy. Regulations prevent that.
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Is It True That the Government Can Spend Before Taxing?
Whether the renegade claim is true depends on how you choose to define the word “government.”
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The Fed’s Decentralized System and the Spread of Economic Ideas
Reserve Banks brought monetarism and rational expectations into the monetary policy discussion, and, more recently, they have fostered dissenting views on the Fed’s role as a lender of last resort and the effectiveness of quantitative easing.
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Judy Shelton and the Dual Mandate Debate
Shelton is right to criticize the full-employment aspect of the Fed’s dual mandate.
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