This essay examines in detail the properties of a well functioning monetary system - defined as money plus the mechanisms to execute payments - in both the short and long run, drawing on both theory and the lessons from history. It stresses the importance of trust and of the institutions needed...

In the years since the financial crisis, and for the first time in the history of central banks, the Federal Reserve has been pursuing monetary policies which allow shadow banks to access its reserves. The paper examines these policies in an analysis based on the concept of security structure....

The scientific reassessment of the economic role of the state after the crisis has renewed interest in Abba Lerner's theory of functional finance (FF). A thorough discussion of this concept is helpful in reconsidering the debate on the nature of money and the origin of the business cycle and...

The scientific reassessment of the economic role of the state after the crisis has brought back Abba Lerner's theory of functional finance (FF). A thorough discussion of this concept is helpful in reconsidering the debate on the nature of money, the origin of the business cycle, and crises. It...

One of the main contributions of Modern Money Theory (MMT) has been to explain why monetarily sovereign governments have a very flexible policy space that is unconstrained by hard financial limits. Not only can they issue their own currency to pay public debt denominated in their own currency,...

This paper considers money creation by banks and central banking in a model where a means of payment is issued by both the central bank and banks, and the private issuance is endogenous in competitive equilibrium. The economy lasts for two dates, but the central bank gets its purely nominal...

The first monetary theory of the Great Depression is often credited to Milton Friedman. Advanced to counter the idea that the Great Depression resulted from inherent capitalistic instabilities, Friedman's theory attributed the Depression to policy mistakes by an inept Federal Reserve Board. More...

The paper sets out and analyzes a simple model of money, banking, and price level determination. The model is first used to illustrate recent developments in the theory and analysis of banking, particularly the distinction between the portfolio management services provided by banks and their...

The economic crisis that began in 2007 and still lingers has invited comparison with the Great Depression of the 1930s. It has also generated renewed interest in Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz's explanation of the latter as mainly the consequence of the Fed's failure as a lender of last...