Topic: Sound Money Project

Op-ed: Was the euro mistake?

– July 7, 2015

Originally posted on the Atlas Network page With Greece rejecting the structural reforms and other terms that it would need to implement for yet another bailout of its crushing government debt, economists are questioning whether the eurozone and its sh …

Sound Money Project

On interest rate targeting

– July 6, 2015

Previously I discussed inflation targeting as a popular rule for governing central bank behavior. In this post I will discuss interest rate targeting, another popular recommendation that has its own costs and benefits. The most prominent interest rate …

Sound Money Project

Understanding the Greek crisis

– June 30, 2015

As I write these lines, it is almost certain that Greece will default on its debt today, June 30. What led to such a disastrous situation? To understand, we must look back in time to the events leading up to and surrounding today’s expected default. A …

Sound Money Project

Why free-banking?

– June 29, 2015

The need for and convenience of a central bank are usually taken for granted. To say that a central bank is a good institution and, therefore, needed, is not enough. Unfortunately, the assumption that central banks are necessary seems to weigh more hea …

Sound Money Project

Inflation targeting as a monetary policy rule

– June 22, 2015

Among economists who agree that monetary policy should be conducted according to predictable rules, perhaps no proposed rule enjoys greater support than inflation targeting. In brief, inflation targeting means the central bank conducts monetary policy …

Sound Money Project

Sound money alternatives series

– June 19, 2015

Over the next few weeks, the Sound Money Project will be running a series of blog posts exploring free-market monetary alternatives. Our dedicated fellows will prepare a series of posts that explain the principles and importance of the following topics …

Sound Money Project

Why are real interest rates so low?

– June 17, 2015

In a recent blog post, Alex Salter discusses the problem of reasoning from a price change in the context of interest rates. Simply put, observing a low interest rate does not necessarily mean that monetary policy is loose (or tight!). Instead, we shoul …

Sound Money Project

More on money and interest rates

– June 15, 2015

A confusion arising from the popular usage of the word “money” is that bankers claim to lend money and bank customers claim to borrow money. But, people do not increase their indebtedness in order to hold greater idle cash balances! The extension of cr …

Sound Money Project

Old money: How the Fed’s actions harm millennials

– June 8, 2015

By Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Jared Meyer In our new book, Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America’s Young, we show how government policy is biased towards older people and creates an environment that systemically works against young Americans …

Sound Money Project

Op-ed: Trade agreements need rational provisions to end currency manipulation

– June 5, 2015

It’s a well-known fact among economists of nearly every stripe that global trade is an engine of prosperity, especially for developing nations with a crucial need for access to international markets. The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreeme …

Sound Money Project

Ten things every economist should know about the gold standard

– June 4, 2015

This piece was originally published by Alt-M By George Selgin At the risk of sounding like a broken record (well, OK–at the risk of continuing to sound like a broken record), I’d like to say a bit more about economists’ tendency to get their monetary h …

Sound Money Project

Evaluating quantitative easing

– June 3, 2015

This piece was originally published in Alt-M By Gerald P. O’Driscoll In my prior post, “The Futility of Stimulus,” I examined whether Federal Reserve Policy has provided economic stimulus. I employed standard measures of money-supply growth to evaluat …