At Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok notes David Warsh’s claim, seconded by Paul Krugman, that “Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics.” Apparently Warsh and Krugman have no memory of the 20th century. The big issue of the century in economic theory and…
Central banking has undergone drastic changes during the last 100 years that are often unappreciated today. Before World War I, most central banks were partly or entirely privately owned. They were not expected to spur economic growth or smooth business cycles. Rather, they defined their goals more…
(Both parts of this article originally appeared, under the title "Fractional Reserves and Economic Development," on the short-lived Free Market News Network.) __________________________ When Adam Smith first drew attention to the benefits of fractional-reserve banking, those benefits were but a glimmer of far more impressive gains…
(A few years ago I was hired to contribute some articles on free banking and related subjects to an online forum called the Free Market News Network. I wrote several before the checks stopped coming, and then insisted that those already published be taken off the site,…
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….