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One hundred years after its foundation, the Federal Reserve has been entrusted with an enormous expansion in its operating powers for the sake of reviving a sluggish economy during the financial crisis. The aim of the present volume is to present a thorough and fundamental analysis of the Fed in the recent past, as well as over the entire course of its history. In evaluating the origin, structure and performance of the Fed, the contributors to this volume critically apply the principles of Austrian monetary and business-cycle theory. It is argued that the Fed has done harm to the U.S. and increasingly, the global economy by committing two types of errors: theoretical errors stemming from an incorrect understanding of the optimal monetary system, and historical errors, found in episodes in which the Fed instigated an economic downturn or hindered a budding recovery. The book contains not only a critical analysis of the activities of the Fed over its history, but also a road map with directions for the future.
List of contents
Introduction.- A Pre-history of the Federal Reserve.- Does U.S. History Vindicate Central Banking? - Ben Bernanke, the FDR of Central Bankers.- Fed Policy Errors of the Great Depression.- The Federal Reserve: Reality Trumps Rhetoric.- A Fraudulent Legend: The Myth of the Independent Fed.- Will Gold Plating the Fed Provide a Sound Dollar? Arthur Burns: The Ph.D. Standard Begins and the End of Independence.- The Federal Reserve's Housing Bubble and the Skyscraper Curse.- There Is No Accounting for the Fed.- Fiat Money and the Distribution of Incomes and Wealth.- Unholy Matrimony: Monetary Expansion and Deficit Spending.- Information, Incentives, and Organization: The Microeconomics of Central Banking.- A Stocktaking and Plan for a Fed-less Future.
About the author
David Howden is a professor of economics at St. Louis University's Madrid Campus. He is the editor of the Journal of Prices & Markets and Academic Vice President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada. Dr. Howden has published dozens of articles in refereed journals and scholarly books. He is the co-author of Deep Freeze: Iceland´s Economic Collapse (Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2011) and the editor of Institutions in Crisis: European Perspectives on the Recession (Edward Elgar, 2011).
Joseph T. Salerno is a professor of economics in the Lubin School of Business of Pace University in New York. He is the editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and the Academic Vice President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Dr. Salerno has published over 50 articles and essays in refereed journals and scholarly books. He is the author of Money: Sound and Unsound (2010) and has edited or co-edited several books including among others: Prices and Production and Other Works: F.A. Hayek on Money, the Business Cycle and the Gold Standard (2008); A History of Money and Banking in the United States by Murray N. Rothbard (2005); Human Action The Scholars Editionby Ludwig von Mises(1998). Dr. Salerno’s area of expertise is monetary theory and policy, international monetary reform and Austrian economics. He has testified before Congress on the topics of inflation and of fractional reserve banking.
Summary
One hundred years after its foundation, the Federal Reserve has been entrusted with an enormous expansion in its operating powers for the sake of reviving a sluggish economy during the financial crisis. The aim of the present volume is to present a thorough and fundamental analysis of the Fed in the recent past, as well as over the entire course of its history. In evaluating the origin, structure and performance of the Fed, the contributors to this volume critically apply the principles of Austrian monetary and business-cycle theory. It is argued that the Fed has done harm to the U.S. and increasingly, the global economy by committing two types of errors: theoretical errors stemming from an incorrect understanding of the optimal monetary system, and historical errors, found in episodes in which the Fed instigated an economic downturn or hindered a budding recovery. The book contains not only a critical analysis of the activities of the Fed over its history, but also a road map with directions for the future.
