Topic: Monetary Policy

“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 …

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“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 …

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“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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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“A Free-Market Monetary System”

– July 14, 2010

“When a little over two years ago, at the second Lausanne Conference of this group, I threw out, almost as a sort of bitter joke, that there was no hope of ever again having decent money, unless we took from government the monopoly of issuing money and …

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“Pound Rises After Data Show Higher-Than-Expected Inflation”

– July 13, 2010

“The pound rose against the dollar, snapping a three-day drop, as reports showed inflation above economists’ forecasts and higher retail sales, stoking speculation that the Bank of England may raise interest rates. “Although inflation is supposed to be …

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“Your Money Back”

– July 12, 2010

“Is Ron Paul’s suggestion that the Federal Reserve be eliminated a “fringe position,” as Josh Barro suggested in the June 21 issue of National Review (“Mend the Fed”)? It depends on what “fringe” means. If it means simply that a large majority disagree …

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“Honest Money through bearer shares, a proposal”

– July 9, 2010

“Nobody understands money, least of all economists. Too sweeping a statement? Perhaps. But every analysis of the workings of monetary systems that I have ever read has been seriously in error at one or more crucial points. This is true not only of the …

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“Haste Makes Waste in Financial Regulatory Bill”

– July 7, 2010

“The Congressional Conference Committee worked all night on Friday, June 25, finally quitting at 5:37 in the morning, so that President Obama could go to the G-20 Summit in Canada saying that Congress had finished a bill. Throughout the night comments …

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Highlighting Hayek

– July 7, 2010

Is the world finally looking to the ideas of Friedrich Hayek? It appears that the intellectual debate may be heading in a new direction. Stimulus spending has done practically nothing to reduce unemployment or spur growth; instead it has merely inflate …

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