George Selgin wrote a post on expressing ideas in words rather than mathematics. Here are my two cents of commentary. Math is useful when we want to know “how much?” How much is the U.S. economy growing? How much is the value of the dollar changing against…
US Rep Ron Paul will be holding a long awaited hearing today at 2 pm on his Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 (HR 1495). I'm offering my own little cheat sheet for the hearing here. Witnesses to include The Honorable Eric M. Thorson (testimony in PDF), Inspector…
(This one’s especially for GPO.) In the aftermath of the U.S. banking crises of the 1930s, it became common for American economists to speak of the “inherent” instability of fractional-reserve banking and of the “perverse elasticity” of money supply in fractional-reserve banking systems. What the economists in…
“I personally have always been a big believer in providing as much information as you can to help the public understand what you’re doing, to help the markets understand what you’re doing, and to be accountable to the public for what you’re doing.” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,…
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…