From strollers to walkers -- Truth is worse than fiction -- Driving in LA with a map of New York -- Popular tonics, snake oils, and other easy fixes -- Going critical -- Changing course -- Grab your life jacket -- Securing your future

Economists have long argued that inclusive and well-developed financial systems play a critical role in fostering economic growth and development. However, the question of what is the best means of achieving financial development has long remained a puzzle in the development finance literature....

This paper examines the potential effects of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 on banks' noninterest expenses. Using data on U.S. bank holding companies from 1995 through 2016, we test whether noninterest expenses increase following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act or in relation to the number of...

Economists have long debated the relationship of bank credit to the business cycle. The attribution of economic cycles to the "inherent instability" of fractional-reserve banking has been advanced not only by Austrian scholars in the tradition of Murray Rothbard, but also by a number of...

Market Monetarists and free bankers tend to agree on the theoretical desirability of having a monetary system that stabilizes the flow of nominal spending in an economy. However, their ideas diverge on two related issues: (1) how should we conceive of the process in which total spending is...

For nearly 80 years, the field of macroeconomics has largely been shaped by the aftermath of the Keynesian revolution. Many economists have argued that his revolution and the subsequent internal and external disputes it has sparked have had the unfortunate side effect of crowding out much of...

James Buchanan had long been a champion of the early Chicago school's emphasis on the essential role institutions play in framing the market process. In his post-2009 analysis, Buchanan used this “Old Chicago School” approach to argue that the Great Recession fundamentally represented not a...

Since emerging on the scene in 2009, the digital currency bitcoin has sparked an intense debate online and in the financial presses about its relative virtues and vices as well as its implications for the future of money. In this paper, I examine whether it is likely that bitcoin will emerge as...

Many economists argue that financial market development plays a role in fostering economic development. However, the question of how to extend financial access to the unbanked in underdeveloped countries has long remained a puzzle in the development finance literature. Much of the debate thus...