Free Banking And Monetary Reform

This book boldly challenges the conventional view that the state must play a dominant role in the monetary system.

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An assessment and survey of current approaches in service provision to the elderly with psychological problems emphasizing every day clinical techniques currently used in the UK and the US. The 14 contributors evaluate general health care issues and psychogeriatric management as well as specific practices dealing with a range of disorders from Alzhemier's to Pick's disease concentrating on team approaches, community work, and individual therapy. Ten appendices supply suggested formats for statistical recording, consent forms, staff questionnaires, procedures, and outcome measures. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Over 50 years ago, In Search of a Monetary Constitution, which focused on the need for constraints on the creation of money by the government, was published. Although overlooked at the time, the work's analysis has proven to be remarkably prescient. This new collection of essays, Renewing the Search for a Monetary Constitution: Reforming Government's Role in the Monetary System, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the first edition by revisiting and re-energizing the original intent. Since the publication of the original book, central banks have delivered neither sound money nor real growth; instead, chronic inflation and a series of booms and busts have prevailed. In this new collection, scholars call for monetary reform centered on the debate over creating constitutional provisions that empower government versus provisions that prohibit government interference with money. The aim of Renewing the Search for a Monetary Constitution is to revitalize public discussion of constitutional monetary reform. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to change the domination of our monetary system by the government.

At the height of the Great Depression a number of leading U.S. economists advanced a proposal for monetary reform that became known as the Chicago Plan. It envisaged the separation of the monetary and credit functions of the banking system, by requiring 100% reserve backing for deposits. Irving Fisher (1936) claimed the following advantages for this plan: (1) Much better control of a major source of business cycle fluctuations, sudden increases and contractions of bank credit and of the supply of bank-created money. (2) Complete elimination of bank runs. (3) Dramatic reduction of the (net) public debt. (4) Dramatic reduction of private debt, as money creation no longer requires simultaneous debt creation. We study these claims by embedding a comprehensive and carefully calibrated model of the banking system in a DSGE model of the U.S. economy. We find support for all four of Fisher's claims. Furthermore, output gains approach 10 percent, and steady state inflation can drop to zero without posing problems for the conduct of monetary policy.

A central bank needs authority and a sphere of independent action. But a central bank cannot become an unelected czar with sweeping, unaccountable discretionary power. How can we balance the central bank's authority and independence with needed accountability and constraints? Drawn from a 2015 Hoover Institution conference, this book features distinguished scholars and policy makers' discussing this and other key questions about the Fed. Going beyond the widely talked about decision of whether to raise interest rates, they focus on a deeper set of questions, including, among others, How should the Fed make decisions? How should the Fed govern its internal decision-making processes? What is the trade-off between greater Fed power and less Fed independence? And how should Congress, from which the Fed ultimately receives its authority, oversee the Fed? The contributors discuss whether central banks can both follow rule-based policy in normal times but then implement a discretionary do-what-it-takes approach to stopping financial crises. They evaluate legislation, recently proposed in the US House and Senate, that would require the Fed to describe its monetary policy rule and, if and when it changed or deviated from its rule, explain the reasons. And they discuss to best ways to structure a committee—like the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates—to make good decisions, as well as offer historical reflections on the governance of the Fed and much more.

In my opinion, the United States is facing monetary reform within the lifetime of most of its citizens, because the world is not able to continue to carry its public debt. Europe, too, is over-burdened. The old remedy of growth, expansion of the money supply, and resulting inflation has run its course. To devalue the dollar further to five cents and then one cent of its 1950 purchasing power would result in an exponential decline not even seen in South America. The monetary reform can be along the lines of the American Colm-Dodge-Goldsmith Plan imposed by the U.S. Military government on Germany in 1946 (implemented in 1958), with the significant difference that the U.S. productive capacity, the level of employment though lower than desired, and its infrastructure are intact. What needs to be fixed is the $15 trillion national debt, the staggering unfunded liabilities of $113 trillion, and the banking system. Quasi money is not even acceptable to the banks themselves and must be eliminated by putting deposits under a near 100% liquidity cover of federal funds, eliminating the national debt in the wash-up. A conversion of old currency into new may be necessary given the enormity of the unfunded liabilities of nearly ten times GDP, which are growing exponentially and coming home to roost. The tax system needs to be overhauled so that to meet the burden without killing the economy. The national debt itself, can be redeemed as outlined in my booklet, "Money in Crisis," 2nd edition, by repaying the debt with redemption certificates while increasing banks' reserve requirements, so that the redemption receipts cannot be booked as deposits and increase the money supply, but, for example, as capital subscriptions, which is preferable to outright U.S. national debt repudiation, because the U.S. national debt cannot be repaid with taxes; it is at the point of no return.

Publisher: Inbook; Rev Sub edition (March 1995)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0964302500ISBN-13: 978-0964302501