Improving the Monetary System Since 1983, the Cato Institute’s Annual Monetary Conference has brought together leading scholars and policymakers to discuss important issues in the conduct of monetary policy and steps that might be taken to improve the existing system. The conferences have also considered ideas for…
The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, delivered a scathing rebuke to Libra, the Facebook-led digital currency initiative, in the Financial Times this morning. Coming on the heels of several U.S. companies' withdrawal from the initiative after they received threatening letters from Senators Sherrod Brown and Brian…
The Zimbabwe government is back to its old money-printing tricks. As demand for Zimbabwe dollars dwindles, the government has ramped up restrictions on the use of substitutes. Late last month, as reported by Bloomberg News, "Zimbabwe’s government gave the central bank powers to impose civil penalties to…
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand." (Attributed to Milton Friedman) While my fellow Fed-watchers have had their eyes firmly glued to the repo-market for several weeks now, I've been preoccupied with…
The Fall 2019 edition of the Cato Journal, the Cato Institute’s interdisciplinary journal of public policy, is now available online. Readers of Alt-M will find the articles on monetary and financial topics of special interest. Their topics range from financial inclusion, to macroprudential policy, to Modern Monetary…