Topic: Sound Money Project

The money supply and the price level: a broken link?

– April 7, 2016

This past week, The Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) held its annual conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. As always, it was a very interesting event and I would like to take this opportunity to encourage young scholars who are serious abo …

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Central bank independence and monetary reform

– April 4, 2016

Most modern economists believe we’d be better off with an independent central bank. In a new Brookings paper, Sarah Binder and Mark Spindel consider whether the Fed can remain independent in a politically polarized era.

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Austrian business cycle theory and optimal resource reallocation

– March 30, 2016

Last time, I argued that the two chief components of Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT)—inconsistent consumption and investment plans engendered by faulty interest rate signals, and reallocation of resources during the bust—could be understood even …

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Why sound money?

– March 28, 2016

In recent posts, George Selgin (here and here) criticizes anthropologist David Graeber for sustaining that anthropological discoveries debunk long standing core economic beliefs. A superficial reading of economics might suggest that this discipline uph …

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Tall Paul Volcker

– March 21, 2016

The Institute for Economic Education at East Texas Baptist University has produced a funny music video titled The Legend of Tall Paul. Paul Volcker, of course, is widely credited with getting monetary policy under control in the 1980s, ushering in a pe …

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The never-ending Argentine fiscal business cycle

– March 16, 2016

15 years after carrying out the biggest sovereign default in its history, Argentina finally reached a debt accord with its holdouts. The agreement between Mauricio Macri’s administration and the holdout litigants in the U.S. Court of Law has finally be …

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On ‘Reimagining Money’

– March 14, 2016

When reimagining money, we should keep in mind the transaction-cost-reducing role of money. And we should reject novel alternatives that fail to achieve that end.

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More quantitative easing?!

– March 2, 2016

Had the Fed been less concerned with keeping inflation below 2%, it might have increased the monetary base without sterilizing. In that case, it probably could have stabilized nominal spending with a much smaller expansion of the monetary base.

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The Hong Kong dollar, rock solid

– February 29, 2016

The currency speculators are restless, again. Many, like George Soros and Kyle Bass, are reportedly taking aim at the Hong Kong dollar (HKD). HKD bear circles think China’s renmimbi (RMB) will lose value against the U.S. dollar (USD) as China’s economy …

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Op-ed: Global monetary turmoil is hurting economic growth

– February 25, 2016

For the first time in recent memory, politicians and candidates alike are talking about the importance of rules-based monetary reform and the public is shifting its attention (and ire) from the bankers on Wall Street to the central bankers at the Feder …

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Austrian business cycle theory and rational expectations

– February 24, 2016

Although Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT) is a powerful price-theoretic explanation for monetary-induced booms and busts, it is not without critics.  Indeed, many find ABCT implausible for two reasons.  The first is that it seems to rely on indivi …

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13 Things Bernanke Believes (That I Don’t)

– February 22, 2016

Ben Bernanke is obviously a very intelligent guy. And I am inclined to believe he is a good person (i.e., honest, well-intentioned, etc.). So it is a bit unsettling to find that we seem to disagree on so many fundamental issues.

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