During the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 9), the question of monetary freedom was vigorously debated. There were as yet no banks or paper money in China — money consisted solely of coin. Private mints competed with government mints, either in the shadow market or…
Dormant for a while, the debate over India’s demonetization program of last fall has been revived by new evidence. The new evidence on note returns and GDP vindicates the critics, and has the defenders in strategic retreat. To recap: On November 8, 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra…
I’ve begun working on a new book on the gold standard. In the first chapter I plan to discuss the origin of money, as a preliminary to discussing how silver and gold became the world’s dominant commodity monies. The topic of the origin of money has become…
Kenneth S. Rogoff stands out as the advocate of restricting hand-to-hand currency who has argued the case most comprehensively and probably the most cautiously. I critically reviewed his recent book, The Curse of Cash, in the May 2017 issue of Econ Journal Watch. Here I summarize highlights…
Every time I say something nice about monetary rules, as I did in my last post here, some Alt-M readers wonder why I'm doing that instead of championing free banking and choice in currencies. Have I given up my former views concerning the merits of these alternatives?…