Clik here to view.
A 1920-21 Recovery Myth
The Forgotten Depression, Jim Grant's excellent book about the 1920-21 downturn and the recovery that followed, has generated a burst of critical commentary from persons anxious to reject the principal...
View ArticleNo, Virginia, there is no risk-free banking
(With apologies to the New York Sun of September 21, 1897.) Dear Free Banking— I am 18 years old. Some of my professors say there is a Santa Claus called "risk-free banking." Papa says, "If you see it...
View ArticleThe Treasury and the Fed
Dear WSJ Editors: Your letter-writer Robert Eisenbeis (“Treasury and the Fed’s Cash Flow, Jan. 19) is missing the forest for the trees. He is correct that the act by which the Fed rebates its interest...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Proof of Math Gone Mad
Last September Kevin Dowd authored a dandy Policy Analysis for us called "Math Gone Mad: Regulatory Risk Modeling by the Federal Reserve." In it Kevin pointed to the dangers inherent in the Federal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Capital Unbound: The Cato Summit on Financial Regulation
Interested in how to advance economic growth? Join the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives in New York on June 2nd for a day examining the current state of U.S. capital...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Too Big to Punish
The Federal government sees itself leading the fight against discrimination, and has even fallen in love with the notion of “disparate impact,” a concept that suggests businesses should be held liable...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wasting a Crisis: A Book Forum
This is a story we all know: the Great Depression was caused by market failure, the predictable fall-out from the excesses of the unrestrained, unregulated, Wild West that was the securities markets at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"The New Mediocre Is Not Good Enough"
Commissioner Christopher Giancarlo of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission delivered the morning keynote address at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives’ recent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Alt-M Redux: Incredible Commitments: Why the Euro is Destroying both Europe...
(Every now and then, it seems worthwhile to re-post a seemingly pertinent item from our archives. Thus the ongoing Greek crisis inspires me to air once more a post I wrote in 2012 concerning the flaws...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Not to Stress Test: UK Edition
Anyone who follows the stress tests conducted by the Fed and various European banking authorities can’t help poking fun at them. After all, it’s hard to repress a chuckle when, time and again, a bank...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Green Light for Investment Crowdfunding?
There’s big news in the crowdfunding world. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that they are (finally) voting on final rules Friday that would make investment crowdfunding legal....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is Bitcoin Only Valuable to Crooks and Tax Cheats?
It isn’t every day that University of Chicago economists Eugene Fama and Richard Thaler see eye to eye. Fama, who won the Nobel Prize in 2013, is one of the best known proponents of the efficient...
View ArticleClik here to view.
George Selgin Talks Crisis on EconTalk
CMFA Director George Selgin recently appeared on EconTalk, the weekly podcast from the Library for Economics and Liberty hosted by Russ Roberts. He and Russ discussed the causes of the 2007–08...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Portugal-Style Bail-ins: The New Norm under Dodd-Frank?
As 2015 came to an end, so perhaps did a central tenet of resolving failed companies, the notion that “similarly situated” creditors ought to be treated equally, or, as the lawyers like to say “pari...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can Money-Market Mutual Funds Reliably Avoid the Problem of Runs?
The majority of federally insured savings and loans failed in the 1980s, wiping out the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation in 1989. The fiasco ultimately cost taxpayers around $150 billion...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cowen on Central Banks and Liquidity Traps
These are challenging times for monetary economists like myself, what with central banks making one dramatic departure after another from conventional ways of conducting monetary policy. Yet so far as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Money-Market Mutual Funds: Restrictions, Run-Proofing, and Regulatory Pretense
You may recall from my last Alt-M post that in August 2008 the failure of Lehman Brothers caused sizable losses to a large money-market mutual fund, The Reserve Primary Fund, which held hundreds of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Administration’s Puerto Rico Jujitsu Threatens the States’ Ability to Borrow
The New York Times reported last week on some of the details of the Obama Administration’s recovery plan for Puerto Rico, and it does not bode well for investors — or for states and municipalities that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stop Encouraging Homeownership
Last month, the Treasury Department announced new steps to boost the market for private mortgage bonds, not backed by the government or any federal entity, in order to increase homeownership and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Did Dodd-Frank Increase Bank Capital?
Financial reform has taken a prominent role in the current presidential debates, particularly between Clinton and Sanders. As Clinton is seen as the candidate of the status quo, her defenders have...
View Article
