Over the past decade and a half Axel Leijonhufvud has written extensively on monetary regimes and their connection to nominal and real economic performance. Monetary regimes are important because they determine whether countries follow stable or unstable monetary policies and hence have stable...

The classical gold standard era from 1880 to 1914, when most countries of the world defined their currencies in terms of a fixed weight (which is equivalent to a fixed price) of gold and hence adhered to a fixed exchange rate standard, has been regarded by many observers as a most admirable...