Topic: Sound Banking

Financial Inclusion: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

– January 9, 2019

We can’t predict exactly what solutions will emerge from financial liberalization. The results will likely differ from country to country or region to region, depending on unique cultural and socio-economic factors.

Sound Banking

Why Are Many Households Unbanked?

– December 27, 2018

A new NBER working paper raises doubts about the welfare gains from mobile banking.

Regulation, Sound Banking

The WWI Agriculture Boom and Bust

– November 15, 2018

A new NBER working paper uses bank-level financial and county-level agricultural data to show how risky lending might amplify the boom and bust.

Sound Banking

Competitive Full-Reserve Banking

– September 24, 2018

Historically, fractional-reserve banks have always won out against their full-reserve cousins. But times have changed.

Sound Banking

Government Guarantees and the Valuation of American Banks

– July 23, 2018

Expectations of government bailouts drove the increase and decline of American banks’ market value to book value, according to a new NBER working paper.

Sound Banking, Sound Money

Base Money and the Birth and Use of Credit Money

– June 25, 2018

The complexity of credit markets creates difficulty for teaching monetary theory purely through reference to observed data. An appropriate framing should follow the evolution of money and credit.

Sound Banking

Not All Crises Are Due to Unexpected Shocks

– June 19, 2018

In the case of Argentina, three particular problems call into question the “surprise” explanation of the currency crisis.

Sound Banking, Sound Money

Setting Aside My (Fractional) Reservations

– May 9, 2018

A decade ago, I was a fractional-reserve banking skeptic. Today, I’m all for it. Here’s why.

Central Banking, Monetary Policy, Sound Banking, Sound Money

Money as a Social Institution

– April 16, 2018

If the language of commerce is quid pro quo, money is its grammar.

Sound Banking

Historical Perspective on Financial Instability

– January 30, 2018

A new NBER paper shows that credit-induced banking panics are the exception, not the rule.

Central Banking, Monetary Policy, Sound Banking, Sound Money

Financial Depth and the Fed’s Balance Sheet

– December 15, 2017

The Fed’s balance sheet crowds out bank lending, stifling economic growth.

Research Briefs, Sound Banking

End Government Borrowing

– September 25, 2017

The ceiling is often likened to a credit-card limit, but that’s a bad analogy. The federal government doesn’t have a debt limit at all. It has a debt sky.