Nicolas Cachanosky

This week was of high political voltage because of the debt ceiling debate. Could the most important economy in the world default its debt? And in such case, what would happen, not only to the United States, but to the worldwide economy, given that we are in the midst of a financial crisis? The recent […]

Fractional reserves is an important component of financial stability. Most of the financial regulation is aimed to control this aspect of banking practice such that banks do not become insolvent and a contagious set of bank runs gets into the financial markets. It is as if banks were unable to control themselves and regulation coming […]

Lately, a lot has been said about Greece, Spain and Italy in the financial crisis affecting Europe. The fear is that these economies can affect the performance of bigger economies, like Germany, one of the largest economies in the world and the second worldwide exporter. Germany, as well, is in a precarious situation given the […]

Italy’s senate approved today a plan to cut government spending for the period 2011-2014. Italy’s public debt is more than 100% of GDP and the fiscal deficit was between 3% to 5.9% of GDP for last year. Similar situation is shared by other European countries like Greece, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Ireland and France. Europe, in […]

The European countries seem to be facing a road with no easy exit. One on side they are facing fiscal deficits. On other side they are already dealing with an important debt amount that can hardly be sustained, as the case of Greece is showing these days. On even another front, governments are facing strong […]

The bitcoin phenomenon has attracted quite a lot of attention lately. It has been discussed in many blogs and media websites. But what are they? Are they really money? Can they replace actual monetary institutions? Who issues and manages the bitcoins? Does the regression theorem hold, and if so how? What the bitcoins are, and […]

With the financial crisis affecting the United States and Europe, here and there are comments and concerns on what could happen with the dollar, the euro and even the international monetary order. With politicians and economists warning that the financial crisis can become the worst economic situation since the Great Depression, this concerns comes with […]

Price stability has become the main concern of central banks around the world. Both, inflation and deflation, are considered bad outcomes. But because deflation is considered to be worst than inflation, it became practice to prefer to err to the side of inflation to be sure we avoid deflation. If price stability (low inflation) is […]

Deposit insurance, it is argued, is needed to cope with inherent fragility of banking and money market. To avoid panics, or financial crisis, a safety net on the system is required. Of course, such safety, is not free. There are not only direct economic costs, there are also indirect economic costs associated with the problem […]

A relevant figure in a free banking scenario is that of the private clearing house association (CHA). The CHA facilitates clearing services among its members, supplies some regulation to the market and eventually it may become a lender of last resort. Isn’t the case, then, that the invisible hand that operates under free banking will […]