Book•
The Rationale of Central Banking: And the Free Banking Alternative
14 Sep 1990-
TL;DR: The rationale of central banks was first published in England in 1936 as discussed by the authors and was translated into English by Wilhelm Ropke, Oskar Morgenstern, and Fritz Machlup.
Abstract: THE RATIONALE OF CENTRAL BANKING was first published in England in 1936. Vera Smith spent her professional career in a variety of research positions. She wrote articles and books on money, banking, economic development, and the labor market and translated into English books by Wilhelm Ropke, Oskar Morgenstern, and Fritz Machlup. This book provides a scholarly review and judicious assessments of the experience and theory that bear on the issues of free banking and central banking. Its wide-ranging discussion identifies both the fallacies in the arguments for central banks and the influential fallacies in the arguments against free banking. Vera Smith's work should play a prominent role in any reappraisal of our monetary institutions.
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14 Apr 2009
TL;DR: De Soto as discussed by the authors provides a comprehensive analysis of money and banking from the point of view of history, theory, and policy, and presents a full policy program for radical reform.
Abstract: Can the market fully manage the money and banking sector? Jesus Huerta de Soto, professor of economics at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, has made history with this mammoth and exciting treatise that it has and can again, without inflation, without business cycles, and without the economic instability that has characterised the age of government control. Such a book as this comes along only once every several generations: a complete comprehensive treatise on economic theory. It is sweeping, revolutionary, and devastating -- not only the most extended elucidation of Austrian business cycle theory to ever appear in print but also a decisive vindication of the Misesian-Rothbardian perspective on money, banking, and the law. The author has said that this is the most significant work on money and banking to appear since 1912, when Mises's own book was published and changed the way all economists thought about the subject. Its five main contributions: A wholesale reconstruction of the legal framework for money and banking, from the ancient world to modern times; An application of law-and-economics logic to banking that links microeconomic analysis to macroeconomic phenomena; A comprehensive critique of fractional-reserve banking from the point of view of history, theory, and policy; An application of the Austrian critique of socialism to central banking; The most comprehensive look at banking enterprise from the point of view of market-based entrepreneurship. Those are the main points but, in fact, this only scratches the surface. Indeed, it would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this book. De Soto provides also a defence of the Austrian perspective on business cycles against every other theory, defends the 100% reserve perspective from the point of view of Roman and British law, takes on the most important objections to full reserve theory, and presents a full policy program for radical reform. It could take a decade for the full implications of this book to be absorbed but this much is clear: all serious students of these subject matters will have to master this treatise.
328 citations
TL;DR: The authors provide a bibliography of major scholarly writings and many minor writings on currency boards up to mid 2011, which includes two previous bibliographies of currency boards, and include references relevant to currency boards.
Abstract: We provide a bibliography of major scholarly writings and many minor writings on currency boards up to mid 2011. Our bibliography incorporates two previous bibliographies on currency boards. Dr. Kurt Schuler’s 1992 Ph.D. dissertation on the history of currency boards compiled a list of works on currency boards up to then. Schuler listed a number of annual reports of currency boards and other primary sources, but concentrated on scholarly writings by economists in books and economic journals. He relied in part on a 1959 bibliography by the English economist Arthur Hazlewood on the economics of underdeveloped areas, which included a number of references relevant to currency boards. Schuler compiled his bibliography at the end of a long period in which economists had paid little attention to currency boards, and several years before Internet search engines became useful tools for bibliographical research in economics.
126 citations
Book•
10 Jul 2014TL;DR: Turner as discussed by the authors explores the long-run evolution of bank regulation, the role of the Bank of England, bank rescues and the need to hold shareholders to account in the British banking system.
Abstract: Can the lessons of the past help us to prevent another banking collapse in the future? This is the first book to tell the story of the rise and fall of British banking stability over the past two centuries, shedding new light on why banking systems crash and on the factors underpinning banking stability. John Turner shows that there have only been two major banking crises in Britain during this time - the crises of 1825–6 and 2007–8. Although there were episodic bouts of instability in the interim, the banking system was crisis free. Why was the British banking system stable for such a long time? And, why did the British banking system implode in 2008? In answering these questions, the book explores the long-run evolution of bank regulation, the role of the Bank of England, bank rescues and the need to hold shareholders to account.
89 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The causal nexus between concrete individual actions (monetary interventions) and the common good has been examined in the context of virtue ethics as mentioned in this paper, where government interventions have always played a central role in the production of money.
Abstract: Government interventions have always played a central role in the production of money. Invariably, they have been justified by invoking the common good. More than in other applications of virtue ethics, it is therefore necessary to examine the causal nexus between concrete individual actions (monetary interventions) and the common good. The groundwork for this analysis has been laid by Nicolas Oresme in the fourteenth century. In the light of his approach, the main monetary institutions of our present day – fractional-reserve banking and fiat money – appear to be questionable practices that undermine the political, economic, and moral foundations of society.
76 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review some recent developments in digital currency focussing on platform-sponsored currencies such as Facebook Credits and find that it will not likely be profitable for such currencies to expand to become fully convertible competitors to state sponsored currencies.
Abstract: This paper reviews some recent developments in digital currency focussing on platform-sponsored currencies such as Facebook Credits. In a model of platform management, we find that it will not likely be profitable for such currencies to expand to become fully convertible competitors to state-sponsored currencies.
75 citations
Additional excerpts
...At times, it even 24 See, e.g., Rockoff (1974) or Smith (1990)....
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