The Sound Money Project was founded in January 2009 to conduct research and promote awareness about monetary stability and financial privacy. The project is comprised of leading academics and practitioners in money, banking, and macroeconomics. It offers regular commentary and in-depth analysis on monetary policy, alternative monetary systems, financial markets regulation, cryptocurrencies, and the history of monetary and macroeconomic thought.
By conflating the macroeconomics of Keynes with macroeconomics, we run the danger of discarding the contributions that Keynes himself inherited.
It is not hard to find commentary on the internet indicating that Bitcoin is bound to fail. But there is no reason to think that cryptocurrencies will disappear.
Control over money is the legal privilege of the monetary authority. But the monetary authority is not above reproach.
The history of sovereign debt appears to be a history of default, repudiation, and limited debt enforcement. Why, then, do investors keep going back?
The Fed has a monopoly on the creation of base money, the fundamental asset underlying the banking and financial system. And over decades, with each instance of financial turbulence, the Fed has become less constrained in how, when, and why it creates base money.
The Great Recession of the 2000s shaped a generation of macro- and monetary economists. We can debate the details. But three things warrant widespread agreement.
Some politicians are calling for the return of postal banking. Should we heed their call?
Central banking should be boring. Surprises in the stance of monetary policy are almost always a bad thing. The best thing a central bank can do to achieve macroeconomic stability is to be very open about its future intended policies.
Argentina has shown itself incapable of managing the money supply appropriately. It would do better by outsourcing its monetary policy.
In a recent NBER working paper, Barry Eichengreen argues “there is no straight line from commodity money to fiat money and from there to crypto.”
Those who cite low interest rates on government debt miss the point. It is not the price of government borrowing that matters. Rather, it is the opportunity cost of government borrowing to society.
Chairman Powell’s track record suggests that he has a grasp on fundamentals and that he is dedicated to reversing a decade of monetary imbalance.