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, Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr., Lawrence H. White
Director: William J. Luther
Senior Fellows: Gerald P. Dwyer, Joshua R. Hendrickson, Nicolás Cachanosky, Alexander W. Salter, Thomas L. Hogan
Fellows: James L. Caton, J.P. Koning
Krugman’s Zombie Idea: We Owe It to Ourselves
Paul Krugman claims that the national debt doesn’t matter because “we owe it to ourselves.” This “zombie idea” is dead wrong.
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The IMF and Argentina: Same Dance, Same Results
Aid from the IMF and other organizations might even make matters worse by shielding policy makers from the consequences of their policies.
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Banking Unbanked Bitcoiners
For now, volatility and lack of user-friendliness have limited the ability of cryptocurrencies to reach the populations of unbanked and debanked.
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Nigeria’s Cash Tax Is a Bad Idea
Nigeria is one of Africa’s most influential nations. But other African countries should think twice before emulating its costly cash policy.
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The Fed Should Not Paper Over the President’s Policy Errors
Printing money cannot dry up a flood or produce more rainfall in a drought. And it cannot fix the very real problems that result from a trade war.
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Federal Reserve’s “Independence” Masquerade
Chairman Powell’s ideal operating environment most likely looks the same as every other Fed chair’s operating environment: one where the Fed is left alone to treat the economy like a Lego set.
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The Most Dangerous Idea in Central Banking
Progressives like Yglesias recognize the danger of money in politics. They should consider the danger of politics in money, as well. And not just when it suits their interests.
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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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