Money: Free and Unfree

by George Selgin

Overview

Why has the United States experienced so many crippling financial crises? The popular answer: U.S. banks have long been poorly regulated, subjecting the economy to the whims of selfish interest, which must be tempered by more government regulation and centralization. George Selgin turns this conventional wisdom on its head. In essays covering U.S. monetary policy since before the Civil War, he painstakingly traces financial disorder to its source: misguided government regulation, dispelling the myth of the Federal Reserve as a bulwark of stability.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944424305
Publisher:	Cato Institute
Publication date:	04/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	382
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

George Selgin directs the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives and is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Georgia. His previous books include The Theory of Free Banking, Bank Deregulation and Monetary Order, Less Than Zero, and Good Money.

Table of Contents

Foreword Introduction Part I: Regulatory Sources of Financial Instability 1. “Central Banks as Sources of Financial Instability.” The Independent Review, Spring 2010. 2. “Legal Restrictions, Financial Weakening, and the Lender of Last Resort.” Cato Journal, Fall 1989. 3. “A Fiscal Theory of Government’s Role in Money” (with Lawrence H. White). Economic Inquiry, January 1999. Part II: Before the Fed 4. “The Suppression Of State Banknotes: A Reconsideration.” Economic Inquiry, October 2000. 5. “Monetary Reform and the Redemption of National Bank Notes, 1863–1913” (with Lawrence H. White). Business History Review, Summer 1994. 6. “New York’s Bank: The National Monetary Commission and the Founding of the Fed.” Cato Institute Policy Analysis, May 2016. Part III: The Federal Reserve Era 7. “The Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard in the United States.” Cato Institute Policy Analysis, June 2013. 8. “Has the Fed Been a Failure?” (with William D. Lastrapes and Lawrence H. White). Journal of Macroeconomics, September 2012. 9. “Operation Twist-The-Truth: How the Federal Reserve Misrepresents its History and Performance.” Cato Journal, Spring/Summer 2014. 10. “Liberty Street: Bagehotian Prescriptions for a 21st Century Money Market.” Cato Journal, Spring/Summer 2012.