Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 12, no. 1 (2009)
Articles
100 Percent Reserve Money: The Small Change Challenge
by George Selgin
Product Differentiation and Economic Progress
by Randall G. Holcombe
A Capital-Based Theory of Secular Growth
by Andrew T. Young
Notes and Comments
Rejoinder to Hoppe on Indifference
by Walter Block
Further Notes on Preference and Indifference: Rejoinder to Block
by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
A Note on Cartels
by Yoong-Doek Jeon
Remembering
Valentin de Foronda: Liberty, Property, and Securityby Giovanni Patriarca
Book Reviews
The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It. By Robert J. Shiller
Reviewed by David Howden and Philipp Bagus
Fiscal Sociology and the Theory of Public Finance. By Richard E. Wagner
Reviewed by Adam Martin
Comments (2)
Jim
Why the hiatus? (no volume 11)
Published: June 11, 2009 12:24 PM
Michael A. Clem
Not a full-blown criticism, but just a nit to pick. In George Selgin's "100 Percent Reserve Money: The Small Change Challenge", why does he assume that a bank's fees must be strictly proportional to the amount of gold (or other commodity) that the bank is warehousing for its customers? Is that what the pro-100% reserves people are saying? I would think some sort of sliding scale or averaged monthly charge would be more flexible, to allow for the very fluctuations of floating money that he mentions, and in the case of small change, a small flat fee, as banks have traditionally charged, would probably suffice to cover the costs. After all, how much small change does one use at any given time? How much small change do you carry in your pockets right now?
In any case, whether this is Selgin's assumption or his opponents' assumption, I'm surprised that people who support the free market are incapable of realizing that entreprenurial solutions would arise out of problems found in the market, as opposed to some centralist idea that all such problems have to be figured out ahead of time.
As for small change as fiduciary media, I'll have to think more about that.
Published: June 13, 2009 3:58 PM