Money & Banking

Krugman’s Magic Act: On Premium Bonds & The Trillion-Dollar Coin

The trillion-dollar coin is simply FedGov borrowing $1 trillion from us.

A Tragic Half Century Without Gold Money

The gold standard wasn’t suspended because it caused the Great Depression or bank failures, nor did it disappear in 1971 because it “didn’t work.” It’s been gone because fiscal alchemists couldn’t expand the gold supply as they expanded government.

The New Deal and Recovery, Part 8: The NRA

The 1933-37 recovery fell far short of reversing the collapse the U.S. economy suffered between 1929 and 1933, and that this disappointing outcome was the result of New Deal policies aimed at boosting wage rates. The resulting higher wage rates prevented the revival of spending from sponsoring a corresponding revival of employment.

The New Deal and Recovery, Part 5: The Banking Crisis

To understand how the world’s largest economy ended up shutting-down its entire banking system, one must first be aware of a long-standing defect of that system and of how it led, first to the proliferation of small and under-diversified banks, and then to as many bank failures.

The New Deal and Recovery, Part 4: FDR’s Fed

If ever an administration had control over Fed policy, and monetary policy more generally, FDR’s was it. It follows that, if monetary policy did less than it should have to end the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration must bear a good share of the blame.

The New Deal and Recovery

I hope to introduce my readers to evidence casting doubt on the view that New Deal programs ended, or mostly ended, the Great Depression.

Gold and Free Banking versus Central Banking

In the absence of government regulation and monopoly control, a free monetary and banking system would exist; it would not have to be created, designed, or supported. A market-based system would naturally emerge, take form, and develop out of the prior system of monetary central planning. 

Judy Shelton: Golden Nominee for a Tarnished Fed

Judy Shelton is a high-class, high-quality economist, who should join the Fed not so much to burnish its image but to keep it at least a little bit honest and real. The Fed today doesn’t really deserve Shelton, but Shelton deserves a top place at the Fed.

Money and Liquidity

Perhaps the money of the future isn’t some sophisticated crypto token, but a private promise to consume a widely used service. 

Liberate Money From The State

I know that it’s good to have alternatives to government-created currencies. The dollar’s value is only backed by politicians’ promises. I sure won’t trust those.

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