Although its role has been overlooked by monetary historians, a two-cent tax on bank checks effective from June 1932 through December 1934 appears to have been an important contributing factor to that period's severe monetary contraction. According to our estimates, the currency-demand deposit...

Modern accounts of the origins of fractional-reserve banking, in economics textbooks and elsewhere, often assert that London goldsmiths came up with the idea around the middle of the 17th century, and first implemented it by clandestinely lending coin that they were supposed to keep locked away...

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...

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...

Intro -- _Hlk488832294 -- __DdeLink__3072_333543986 -- Figure 1 Spending equilibrium: free banking -- Figure 2 Quarterly value of Fedwire transactions and nominal GDP (1992 = 100) -- Figure 3 US CPI (average 1982-84 = 100), US nominal GDP (million of dollars) -- The authors -- Foreword --...

Contrary to the claims of Arthur Rolnick and Warren Weber, Gresham's Law is not a "fallacy." Nor does it rest on the unrealistic assumption of an operational fixed (disequilibrium) exchange rate between two economically distinct monies. Here I interpret Gresham's Law as a result of coercive...

This article challenges the claim that Great Britain solved its 'big problem of small change' (the problem of keeping decent low-denomination coins in circulation) by embracing Matthew Boulton's steam-based coining technology. Evidence from Great Britain's commercial token episode (1787-97)...

Modern paper currency contributes little to productive investment. This shortcoming is not inherent to paper money. It stems from the fact that such money is monopolistically supplied by public monetary authorities that are poor intermediaries. Commercial banknotes, in contrast, are just as...