Sound Money Project
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.
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The New Status Quo for Public Finance
“After the 2008 financial crisis, the US never returned to pre-crisis growth levels. My expectation is that unless private investors find a means of avoiding this subsidization of federal borrowing, we never will.” ~ James L. Caton
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Will the Fed Do Enough to Bring Down Inflation?
“The Fed must act boldly and swiftly to course correct. Otherwise, inflation expectations could become unanchored––leaving the Fed to choose between restoring its credibility by engineering a recession or tolerating high inflation in perpetuity.” ~ William J. Luther
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What Does Kyle Rittenhouse’s Legal Campaign Tell Us about Access to Crowdfunding?
“For now, Visa and MasterCard haven’t made any discernible efforts to limit crowdfunding accessibility based on concerns over their brand. But if they were to start, that would be a concerning development.” ~ J.P. Koning
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Financial Regulators Ignore the Costs of Regulation
“According to the main evidence cited by the bank regulators themselves, the NSFR will create a net cost to the U.S. financial system, not a net benefit.” ~ Thomas L. Hogan
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Powell Pivots as Inflation Picks Up
“Powell recommended ditching the term transitory. ‘We tend to use it to mean that it won’t leave a permanent mark in the form of higher inflation,’ he told the Senate Committee. ‘I think it’s probably a good time to retire that word and try to explain more clearly what we mean.’” ~ William J. Luther
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Despite Fed Asset Purchases, Lending Remains Depressed
“The Fed’s recent asset purchases appear to have significantly expanded the money supply. But given the small changes in bank lending, it is not clear what their overall effects will be on inflation and the economy.” ~ Thomas L. Hogan
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Three Common Myths About Money and Inflation
“If we oversimplify inflation, we won’t know how to fight it, or whether we should fight it at all. Political responses to economic turmoil are bad enough without the additional complication of widespread misperceptions amongst the public.” ~ Alexander William Salter
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There’s More than One Way to Make Stablecoins Safe
“The PWG’s worries for the safety of stablecoin users are most applicable to one set of stablecoins: the set including USD Coin and Tether. A ‘banks-only’ model may be an improvement for some stablecoins, but it certainly isn’t the only way to ensure stablecoins are safe.” ~ J.P. Koning
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Cryptocurrencies and the National Bank Act: Learning the Wrong Lessons from History
“Perhaps the cryptocurrency market would benefit from regulatory oversight. But the regulators are certainly wrong to base their case on the historical experience of the US. The lesson they should learn from history is that regulation can be detrimental.” ~ Nicolás Cachanosky & William J. Luther
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Was Satoshi Nakamoto Right about Bitcoin Payments?
“Satoshi was correct that card systems work ‘well enough for most transactions’ and thus bitcoin had but a bit part to play in payments. But he was wrong about bitcoin being useful with retailers for small payments and non-reversibile retail payments.” ~ J.P. Koning
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What Does ‘Transitory Inflation’ Really Mean?
“Whether the Fed will conduct policy to render the recent episode of inflation transitory in either sense of the term remains to be seen. My view, informed by market expectations, is that the rate of inflation will eventually decline to something in the neighborhood of 2 percent.” ~ William J. Luther
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Crowding Out Under Quantitative Easing
“The data speaks loudly. An accommodative monetary policy has failed to facilitate a robust economic recovery. And an artificially low federal funds rate is pumping up the federal debt and weighing on private investment.” ~ James L. Caton
