Private Money: Path to Monetary Stability

Kevin Dowd explains how central banking and the monopoly issue of currency by government have politicised and greatly destabilised the banking system. The change from money backed by a commodity standard to fiat money has destroyed the mechanism by which price stability was earlier secured, and opened the way for an historically unprecedented inflation. The Bank of England and other central banks have a record of losses which is comparable to those of the worst managed nationalised trading companies. In contrast, the private issue of currency disciplines banks through competitive pressures, and there is no real danger that the currency will be debased by over-issue. Indeed the historical evidence indicates that private monetary systems, as in Scotland from 1728 to 1845, have been stable and successful. Monetary stability can be achieved through a competitive banking system. This requires complete financial deregulation, the abolition of the Bank of England, and a re-definition of the monetary standard in terms of a general commodity index.

Author: Kevin Dowd
Publisher: Institute of Economic Affairs
Published: 11/19/1988
Pages: 71
Binding Type: Paperback
Size: 9.00h x 6.01w x 0.23d
ISBN: 9780255362160

About the Author
Dowd, Kevin: - Kevin Dowd is professor of finance and economics at Durham University and a partner in Cobden Partners. A lifelong classical liberal, his main interests are in private money and free banking, but he is also interested in general political economy, monetary and financial economics, regulation, risk management and pensions. He has published widely in academic journals and is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

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