Jon Catalan and David Glasner made comments about my post on free banking and the historical gold standard that are worth responding to, so here are some further thoughts on the subject. Jon asked what influence Britain had on the world gold standard before World War I….
Over at his recently established blog “Uneasy Money,” David Glasner has a post on “Gold and Ideology.” (He has started fast out of the gate, writing prolifically; I hope he doesn’t burn out, but there’s a lot to write about when the subject is money.) He claims…
Says the NYTs today, "On July 9, 1896, William Jennings Bryan caused a sensation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with his "cross of gold" speech denouncing supporters of the gold standard. Bryan went on to win the party's nomination." We should add that he lost…
In a previous post I listed what I consider to be the most important ideas on free banking that have been well known for at least 15 years among those of us interested in the subject. During the 20 years from Friedrich Hayek’s revival of interest in…
Free banking as a policy ideal is the result of applying the norms of classical liberalism to money and banking. Classical liberalism upholds individual liberty and private property rights, including freedom of contract, under the rule of law. It opposes rule by unconstrained authorities. Skipping over ancient…