I review the original Monetary Commission's origins and contribution to the legislative effort that led to the passage of the Federal Reserve Act. My immediate purpose is that of identifying that Commission's merits and shortcomings, with the aim of informing the current effort to establish a...

At its hundredth anniversary, the Federal Reserve System's powers are greater than ever, its asset holdings make it far larger, by assets, than any of the world's profit-oriented financial firms, and it commands worldwide prestige. But what has this prestige got to do with the Fed's actual...

Legislation calling for the establishment of a Centennial Monetary Commission “to examine the United States monetary policy, evaluate alternative monetary regimes, and recommend a course for monetary policy going forward,” was introduced in both the House and the Senate in July 2015, with...

I distinguish between a gold standard founded on custom-based or “private” law, and one resting upon statute or “public” law, that is, on government legislation. I then argue that the development and flourishing of the historical gold standard depended crucially upon its moorings in...

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Scotland had a stable financial system. Its stability arose from the pressure that private banks, which had the right to issue bank notes, placed on each other to behave prudently. Unlike in England, the Scottish banking system had no central...

Half way through her terms as Fed chair, Janet Yellen presided over the Fed’s controversial decision to start raising interest rates — a decision many viewed then, and many more view now, as premature. Was that decision consistent with Yellen's supposed commitment to full employment? Or was...

It is widely believed that, in the wake of the dot.com crash, the Fed kept the federal funds target rate too low for too long, inadvertently contributing to the subprime boom. We attribute this and other Fed departures from a "neutral" policy stance to the Fed's failure to respond appropriately...

There is, in informal discussions and even in some academic writings, a tendency to treat U.S. monetary history as divided between a gold standard past and a fiat dollar present. In truth, the legal meaning of a "standard" U.S. dollar has been contested, often hotly, throughout U.S. history, and...

This paper uses a three-region framework to examine the effects of European currency unification on EMU and US inflation rates. It considers ways in which increased participation in the EMU might influence inflation choices in Europe and the United States. It also considers how alternative...