Having considered, in two previous essays, the origins, legality, and adverse consequences of the Scottish bank suspension, we're now ready to ask whether, and in what ways, that episode compels us to reconsider the virtues of free banking, both as practiced in Scotland and in general. If…
(Originally appeared as George Selgin's first-ever post in Alt-M's predecessor blog freebanking.org.) *** Free bankers have been fighting a war on two fronts. On one they face champions of central banking and managed money. On the other they struggle against advocates of 100-percent reserve banking. Although the…
At the end of my first post in this series, I observed that assessing the claim that fractional reserve banking causes business cycles meant asking two questions: first, "To what extent have historical money-fueled booms been associated, not with growth in the supply of either commodity money…
On Twitter last week Stephen Williamson wrote that he was "puzzled by the infatuation with NGDP targeting. We have good reasons to care about the path for the price level and the path for real GDP. Idea seems to be that if you smooth Py … you…