Marius Gustavson
Articles
Hayek’s Contribution to Monetary Theory
“Those who wish to preserve freedom should recognize, however, that inflation is probably the most important single factor in that vicious circle wherein one kind of government action makes more and more government control necessary. For this reason, all those who wish to stop the drift toward increasing government control should concentrate their efforts on…
Another Financial Crisis in the Making
World-wide stock markets plunged yesterday as the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe is worsening. The Dow fell 1000 points–its worst ever intraday drop–before rebounding, but still ended down more than 3 percent (as did the S&P 500 and Nasdaq). Other factors played into this incident as well–a mistaken sell order from Citigroup, unfortunate consequences…
George Selgin – Central Banks as Sources of Financial Instability
“The present financial crisis has set in bold relief the Jekyll and Hyde nature of contemporary central banks. It has made apparent both our utter dependence on such banks as instruments for assuring the continuous flow of credit in the aftermath of a financial bust and the same institutions’ capacity to fuel the financial booms…
Lawrence H. White – What Type of Inflation Target?
“For much of monetary history, inflation targeting was unnecessary. There was no need to worry about constraining the central bank’s inflationary proclivities because no central bank existed. The quantity of basic money was constrained by the mints’ commitment to full-bodied gold and silver coinage (at least where the mint-owners lacked monopoly status or chose not…
Lawrence H. White – Sound Money and Free Banking
On April 19, 2010, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the GMU Economics Society hosted a lecture by Lawrence H. White. Dr. White presented on the subject of sound money, it’s importance and historical origins, and how a free banking system produces a more reliable currency than that of the Federal Reserve. The video of…
Gene Smiley – Rethinking the Great Depression
In this great little book, U.S. economic historian Gene Smiley presents the most recent economic historiography on the Great Depression. He concludes that the crisis was caused by the economic dislocations of World War I along with the attempts by the Bank of England, in conjunction with the monetary authorities of the U.S., to erect…
What Austrian Economics Can Tell Us about the Crisis
The recent financial crisis has called into question several basic tenets of mainstream macroeconomics. In the words of William White, former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), “the prevailing paradigm of macroeconomics allows no room for crises of the sort we are experiencing.” White and his BIS colleagues were among the few…
Wolf and Krugman Discuss Austrian Economics
Martin Wolf (Financial Times) and Paul Krugman (New York Times) discuss Austrian economics.
Lessons from the History of Financial Regulation
Charles W. Calomiris, who is Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has recently published a paper on the lessons that can be drawn from the history of financial regulation. “The Political Lessons of Depression-Era Banking Reform” looks more specifically at the regulatory response the…
Overdose – Documentary on the Financial Crisis
On May 17, the Cato Institute will host a premiere of a new documentary on the financial crisis–Overdose. The trailer can be seen here. The documentary is based upon Swedish writer Johan Norberg’s book Financial Fiasco. Cato describes Overdose as follows: “This 46-minute documentary is a fast-paced look at how we got into the financial…