Can the 'invisible hand' handle money? George Selgin challenges the view that government regulation creates monetary order and stability, and instead shows it to be the main source of monetary crisis.
The volume is divided into three sections:
* Part I refutes conventional wisdom holding that any monetary system lacking government regulation is 'inherently unstable', and looks at the workings of market forces in an otherwise unregulated banking system.
* Part II draws on both theory and historical experience to show how various kinds of government interference undermine the inherent efficiency, safety, and stability of a free monetary system.
* Part III completes the argument by addressing the popular misconception that a monetary system is unsound unless it delivers a stable output price-level.

Everyone is familiar with money. Yet few realize that currently contentious issues and financial difficulties are not new. On the contrary, most are firmly rooted in the past and when examined help to put current economic problems in historical context. This text presents a history of money from Charlemagne's reform in approximately AD 800 to the end of the Silver Wars in 1896. It offers a summary of 20th-century events and an analysis of how the past relates to present problems. This book examines how virtually all modern difficulties associated with money have precedents in the past. It discusses how a mercantile system developed alongside simple, metallic, medieval coinage, in a way which has important lessons for the countries now emerging from central planning. It covers the great periods of monetary disputes, Henry VIII and Sir Thomas Greshem, Isaac Newton's Great recoinage of 1696, Ricardo and the Bullion Committee Report, the battle between the Banking and currency schools, and the neglected but relevant, issues of bimetallism and European monetary union in the late 19th-century.

This is a study of the impact of Britain's economic and financial cities on currency and monetary policy-making in India between the wars. Drawing on a range of archival sources, it analyzes colonial policies against the background of Anglo-American efforts to reconstruct the interwar international financial system, and Britain's struggle to restore sterling and the City of London to their former pre-eminence. Bridging the gulf separating the financial history of interwar Europe from that of India, Britain's financial relations with the empire and those with the wider world, and finally between finance and politics in the last decades of the empire, this book should be of interest to international economic and financial historians, and for historians of India and the British Empire.

This study, first published in 1979, examines and contrasts two concepts of credit rationing. The first concept takes the relevant price of credit to be the explicit interest rate on the loan and defines the demand for credit as the amount an individual borrower would like to receive at that rate. Under the alternative definition, the price of credit consists of the complete set of loan terms confronting a class of borrowers with given characteristics, while the demand for credit equals the total number of loan which members of the class would like to receive at those terms. This title will be of interest to students of monetary economics.

This study, first published in 1994, is intended to deepen the readers understanding of the phenomenon of equilibrium credit rationing in two areas. The first area concerns the form that equilibrium credit rationing assumes and its importance in determining the behaviour of interest rates. The second concerns the role of equilibrium credit rationing in transmitting monetary shocks to the real sector. This title will be of interest to students of monetary economics.

The aim of this book, first published in 1971, is to give the student of monetary economics a clear understanding of the theoretical potentialities of monetary policy as well as the practical limitations that prevent these potentialities from being realised. This volume discusses the central bank's operations in both long- and short-term financial markets, the effects of foreign inflows and outflows of funds, the implications of government budgetary policy, and the repercussions of the activity of non-bank financial institutions. Monetary Management should be of interest to students of finance and to all those concerned by controversies about the operation of monetary policy.

The object of this work, first published in 1977, is to examine the history of the economic and monetary union (EMU) in the European Community, the policies of the parties involved and the conflicts of interest created in the political and economic environment within which all this has taken place. This title will be of interest to students of monetary economics and finance.

This title, first published in 1984, considers a temporary monetary equilibrium theory under certainty in a differentiable framework. Using the techniques of differential topology the author investigates the structure of the set of temporary monetary equilibria. Temporary Monetary Equilibrium Theory: A Differentiable Approach will be of interest to students of monetary economics.

This book, first published in 1936, is both an instructive chapter in economic history and a stimulating period in the history of economic thought. The author examines the years of economic recovery in Sweden and the measures that the country adopted to cope with the crisis due to the War. This title will be of interest to students of monetary e

This title, first published in 1965, provides an analysis of the forces and mechanisms governing the formation of the overall level of money prices. Even though this problem has a long history, and in spite of its obvious practical importance, it remains one of the most poorly understood questions in economic theory. This title will be of interest to students of monetary economics and the history of economic thought.

For two decades thinking on economic policy has been dominated by the idea of economic liberalization in general and financial deregulation in particular. This field has become both extensive and controversial, yet there is no single book which treats financial deregulation in a complete and coherent manner.
This book rectifies the shortfall by focusing specifically on the consequences of interest rate deregulation for the real sectors of the economy. Using both analytical and simulation models the behaviour of consumers, firms, banks, informal credit markets and governments is examined with a view to providing guidance on a number of controversial issues.

The crisis in the euro area is a defining moment in the history of European integration. It has revealed major flaws in the architecture of the European Union; it has challenged European institutions to shape an appropriate response; and it has tested the patience of a European public that is eager to see their economic prospects improve again. This volume brings together some of the world's top economists and policymakers to explain how this crisis came about and what is to be done. The policy agenda these chapters establish is going to be difficult to implement, not least because of popular misunderstanding and political opposition. This book argues, that it is essential that European policymakers push forward this agenda or they run the risk of seeing Europe's economies fall back into crisis. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

There is widespread belief that the high interest rates of the 1980s and 1990s in the developed world have been caused by high budget deficits. Yet, there is no conclusive evidence to support such a belief. This book systematically examines this and other questions relating to the behaviour of real interest rates in eleven developed countries. The results show that generalizations across the countries can be hazardous and strongly suggests that factors specific to individual countries are still of vital importance.

The issue of economic development and monetary stability has produced one of the most passionate debates in economic literature. Yet, much of the evidence employed in this debate is contradictory. Monetary and Financial Policies in Developing Countries: Growth and Stabilization brings together diverse views on the subject within a coherent framework. The work includes:
* a balanced assessment of empirical findings and their theoretical foundations on the role of money and growth
* a discussion of financial liberalization reform in developing countries
* an analysis of monetary policy as an instrument of economic stabilization
* an examination of the monetary supply and demand process in developing countries
* a study of the relationship between money, credit, the balance of payments, inflation and the exchange rate system
* a reflection on market failures and the role of government.

Based on an analysis of a 1988 nationwide sample survey of 10,258 households, this book aims to offer insights into issues of rural inequality in China. The work focuses on the study of wealth rather than income as the primary measure.

Based on an analysis of a 1988 nationwide sample survey of 10,258 households, this book aims to offer insights into issues of rural inequality in China. The work focuses on the study of wealth rather than income as the primary measure.

The labour markets in the United States and in Germany could hardly be more different. The USA, with its tremendous job growth, is often held up as the prime example of the job-creating power of unfettered markets, while Germany is seen as the textbook case of an overregulated European labour market stifling employment growth. For many policy advisers the lessons are clear: if Europeans want to emulate the success of the Americans, they must deregulate their economies. On the other hand, economists in the USA, impressed with Germany's income growth and social stability, have shown increasing interest in the role that non-market institutions play in the German context. This work provides an in-depth analysis of the functioning of various labour market institutions in both the USA and Germany. In close studies of the regulatory differences between the two countries, the authors examine the impact of those institutions on economic performance. On the basis of their findings, they argue that the choice is not one between regulation and deregulation, but rather between different forms and degrees of regulation.

This work presents a comprehensive history and evaluation of the role of the 100 percent reserve plan in the banking legislation of the New Deal reform era from its inception in 1933 to its re-emergence in the current financial reform debate in the US.

This work presents a comprehensive history and evaluation of the role of the 100 percent reserve plan in the banking legislation of the New Deal reform era from its inception in 1933 to its re-emergence in the current financial reform debate in the US.

Europe is in a period of rapid transition. The Single European Market has been completed, and many barriers to the free mvoement of goods, services, labour and capital have been removed. However the moves towards deeper European union, with full monetary union by 1999, have proved more problematic. Outside the EU, the collapse of communism has added more countries to the queue of EFTA nations applying for EU membership. This book, based on articles originally published in Economics and business Education which are here extensively revised and updated, takes a timely look at the European economy. Lively and accessible throughout, the book will be compelling reading for introductory students of economics.

As a result of the liberalization of the 1980s, the financial system has acquired a prominent role in developing economies. It is now conventional wisdom that financial liberalization' is the means to stimulate economic development.
Investment Finance in Economic Development challenges this assumption and offers an alternative view. The book presents a post-Keynesian approach to the role of banks, financial markets and savings in economic development. It departs from the conventional belief that financial institutions are mere intermediaries between savers and investors, to show that banks have a key, active role in the process of investment finance and growth. Further, financial markets, as the loci of allocation of financial savings, are shown to have an important role in supporting financial stability during the process of growth.

In response to the credit crunch during the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, many have called for the re-establishment of regional banks in the UK and elsewhere. In this context, Germany's regional banking system, with its more than 1,400 small and regional savings banks and cooperative banks, is viewed as a role model in the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, in line with the 'death of distance' debate, the universal application of ICT-based scoring and rating systems potentially obviates the necessity for proximity to reduce information asymmetries between banks and SMEs, calling into question the key advantage of regional banks. Utilising novel ethnographic findings from full-time participant observation and interviews, this book presents intimate insights into regional savings banks and compares their SME lending practices with large, nationwide-operating commercial banks in Germany. The ethnographic insights are contextualised by concise description of the three-pillar German banking system, covering bank regulation, structural and geographical developments, and enterprise finance. Furthermore, the book advances an original theoretical approach that combines classical banking theories with insights from social studies of finance on the (ontological) foundation of new realism. Ethnographic findings reveal varying distances of credit granting depending on the rating results, i.e. large banks allocate considerable credit-granting authority to local staff and therefore challenge the proximity advantages of regional banks. Nevertheless, by presenting case studies of lending to SMEs, the book demonstrates the ability of regional banks to capitalise on proximity when screening and monitoring financially distressed SMEs and explains why the suggestion that ICT can substitute for proximity in SME lending has to be rejected.

There's no question, compared to the advanced economies China's economic growth rates have been spectacular, but in most instances the economic analysts tend to forget that a large part of China's growth has been dictated by government industrial subsidies. How did China go from a bit player overnight to the largest exporter in the world in capital-intensive industries? This book shows that government subsidies play a big part in China's success. Government subsidies include those to basic industries: energy (coal, electricity, natural gas and heavy oil), steel, glass, paper, auto parts, solar and more. A lot has been written about China's trade practices with the West, but none of this work addresses the real unsustainable dilemma. Much of the current literature discusses the problems but doesn't explain the root cause of China's lopsided trade practices with the West or explain in detail how China finances its government subsidies, with nothing written that explains that China's subsidized exports to the United States and European Union are basically self-funded by its enormous trade surplus with the West. A trade surplus represents a net inflow of domestic currency from foreign markets and is the opposite of a trade deficit, which would represent a net outflow. Moreover, this is the only book that describes China's current trade practices with the West as a zero sum game at the expense of the West. This book provides two solutions to this endless quagmire: an increase in Western exports to China so that China and the West have more of an equal trade balance, or a very steep reduction of China's exports to the West.

This text investigates the determinants of exchange rates and evaluates the main options for policy-makers in limiting exchange rate fluctuations. It draws on the empirical evidence of the experiences of the G7 countries over the last two decades to conclude that co-ordination of monetary policies is the best way to manage exchange rates. Foreign exchange intervention in markets appears to be effective within currency blocs like the European Monetary System but not on the major exchange rates. It argues that capital/foreign exchange controls become ineffective in the long term and are not critical to the stability of exchange rate systems. The book provides empirical evidence supporting a unified theory of determination for the two main exchange rates.

Ludwig Von Mises's 1912 contribution to the theory of monetary policy and the current prevailing consensus in modern economic liberalism, The Theory of Money and Credit, was a milestone achievement. The author's familiarity with the historical literature on banking and credit allows him to present a coherent theoretical structure that links private exchange between individuals, business and banks to condition the markets affecting money and credit. Through its wider influence on liberal thinkers and politicians, the Theory of Money and Credit has become a classic reference for those seeking to understand the advance of economic liberalism since the 20th century.