Two great resources have been made available to track the many policy responses of governments with regard to the economic impacts of the Covid-19 crisis. Click here for more information.
Author: Dan Rohde
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
S. Omarova, Crises, Bailouts, and the Case for a National Investment Authority
April 1, 2020
Saule T. Omarova, Cornell Law School
The COVID-19 crisis is unlike any other we’ve seen so far.
Current Scholarship
Digital money and central bank digital currency: An executive summary for policymakers
Dirk Niepelt, University of Bern
Central banks already issue digital money, but only to a select group of financial institutions.
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
J. van ‘t Klooster, Why the US Congress gives dollars to the Fed
March 31, 2020
Jens van ‘t Klooster, KU Leuven and University of Amsterdam
Commentators have raised various concerns over provisions in the $2 trillion US stimulus bill that assign $454
Virtual Currencies and the State
J.S. Nelson, The Case for Cryptocurrencies as a New Category of Regulated Non-Sovereign Fiat Currency
March 31, 2020
J.S. Nelson, Villanova University
What are cryptocurrencies: securities, commodities, or another form of established currency – a non-sovereign fiat currency?
Announcement
Primer on the CARES Act SBA Payment Protection Loan Program
In this Primer, we at Justmoney.org provide a user-friendly, step-by-step explanation of the Paycheck Protection Loan Program enacted last week as part of the CARES Act (Mar. 27, 2020).
Current Scholarship
Financial Aspects of the COVID Crisis
Erik Gerding and Nadav Orian Peer
Financial Aspects of the COVID Crisis was a community teach-in in CU Law, held online on March 24, 2020.
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
C. Sissoko, A fire sale in the US Treasury Market: What the coronavirus crisis teaches us about the fundamental instability of our current financial structure
March 27, 2020
Carolyn Sissoko, University of the West of England
A recurring theme in the papers that I have written is that asset price instability is endemic in a system of collateralized lending based on repurchase agreements
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
R. Hockett, The Democratic Digital Dollar: A ‘Treasury Direct’ Option
March 25, 2020
Robert Hockett, Cornell Law School
On March 23rd House Democrats did something I and many others have been advocating for some time
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
J. McAndrews, Derivative Failures
March 22, 2020
James McAndrews, TNB USA Inc. and Wharton Financial Institutions Center
One failure makes many, wrote Bagehot,
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
K. Pistor, The Case for Free Money (a real Libra)
March 20, 2020
Katharina Pistor, Columbia Law School
Our money system revolves around debt.
Current Scholarship
[Recall This Buck I]: Chris Desan on Making Money
Recall this Book Podcast Talks with Christine Desan
This is the first of several RTB episodes about the history of money.
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
L. Downey, The Monetary/Fiscal Divide is Still Getting in Our Way
March 19, 2020
Leah Downey, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University
In the wake of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) the Federal Reserve got creative. The Fed employed
Current Scholarship
Are Central Banks Impotent?
Adair Turner and Paul Tucker
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, two economics heavyweights debate the proposition. Replies will be updated in real time.
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
E. Saeidinezhad, Is the Monetary System as Systemic and International as the Coronavirus?
March 18, 2020
Elham Saeidinezhad, Department of Economics at UCLA
The coronavirus crisis has sparked different policy responses from different countries. The common thread
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
D. Awrey, Here We Go Again? Not Really
March 17, 2020
Dan Awrey, Cornell Law School
The global pandemic unleashed by the coronavirus has inadvertently shone a spotlight on the design of some of our most important monetary institutions.
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
N. Orian Peer, Repo in the Time of Corona
March 16, 2020
Nadav Orian Peer, Colorado Law
“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter [money markets] always reminded him of the fate of unrequited [convergence trades].”
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
J. K. Moudud, Beyond Pathogenic Politics
March 16, 2020
Jamee K. Moudud, Professor of Economics, Sarah Lawrence College, and Board Member, Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and the Law (APPEAL)
In considering the recent stock market crash the casual observer cannot help but be struck by the way
Money in the Time of Coronavirus
J. McAndrews, Economic and Financial Responses to the Coronavirus
March 15, 2020
James, McAndrews, TNB USA Inc. and Wharton Financial Institutions Center
What principles should guide our government’s responses to the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Banking: Intermediation or Money Creation
C. Desan, The Power of Paradigms in Histories of Economic Development
March 12, 2020
Christine Desan, Harvard Law School
An iconic article published by Douglass North and Barry Weingast in 1989 identified the growth of banking
Virtual Currencies and the State
J. Sommer, How is Private Money Possible?
March 11, 2020
Joseph Sommer
Whenever I hear about “virtual currency,” I check my wallet, or sometimes reach for my revolver.
Current Scholarship
Liminalities, Vol. 15, Issue 3: Money on the Left
Edited by Andrés Bernal
This special issue of Liminalities invites cohosts of the Money on the Left Podcast
Banking: Intermediation or Money Creation
P. Tucker, Thinking about whether and why money matters is more important than debates about “views” on banking intermediation
March 5, 2020
Sir Paul Tucker, Harvard Kennedy School
It has been orthodoxy for as long as I can remember that bank deposits are created by bank lending.
Current Scholarship
Understanding technological change in global finance through infrastructures:
Authors: Nick Bernards & Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn
Amid escalating claims about the promises and perils of emergent financial technologies (fintech), critical investigation.
Virtual Currencies and the State
L. Swartz, Starbucks, Libra, and the Boring Future of Money
March 4, 2020
Lana Swartz, University of Virginia
In 2010, the satirical newspaper the Onion ran a story with the headline, “U.S. Economy Grinds to Halt as Nation Realizes Money Just a Symbolic,
Current Scholarship
Senate Testimony of Katharina Pistor, Examining Facebook’s Proposed Cryptocurrency and Its Impact on Consumers, Investors, and the American Financial System
Author: Katharina Pistor
In this testimony before Congress' Committee on Financial Services, Katharina Pistor examines Facebook’s proposed global cryptocurrency, Libra.
Current Scholarship
The Democratic Digital Dollar: A Digital Savings & Payments Platform for Fully Inclusive State, Local, and National Money & Banking Systems
Author: Robert Hockett
Many national and subnational units of government see a need for more inclusive money, payment, and retail banking systems for the capture, storage, and transfer of spendable value among their constituents.
Current Scholarship
Promises All the Way Down: A Primer on the Money View
Author: Elham Saeidinezhad
It has long been tempting for economists to imagine “the economy” as a giant machine for producing and distributing “value.”
Banking: Intermediation or Money Creation
S. Marglin, What Do Banks Do?
February 26, 2020
Stephen A. Marglin, Harvard University
This is a curious debate on which much seems to turn on “the stroke of a pen.”
Virtual Currencies and the State
H. Allen, Cryptocurrencies as Privately-Issued Moneys
February 26, 2020
Hilary J. Allen, American University Washington College of Law
Money serves three important functions. It acts as a unit of account (meaning that it can be used to measure the value of goods and services)
Current Scholarship
The Monetary Basis of Bank Supervision
Author: Lev Menand
Administrative agencies typically operate at arm’s length from the institutions they regulate, making rules and then enforcing them after the fact.
Current Scholarship
Bad Money
Author: Dan Awrey
Money is, always and everywhere, a legal phenomenon. In the United States, the vast majority of the money supply consists of monetary liabilities
Current Scholarship
Senate Testimony of Mehrsa Baradaran on Cryptocurrency & Financial Inclusion
Author: Mehrsa Baradaran
In this testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Community Affairs, Mehrsa Baradaran provides perspective on the cryptocurrency industry’s ambitions with regard to financial inclusion for low income Americas as well as its place in the banking regulatory landscape.
Banking: Intermediation or Money Creation
D. Tarullo, Focusing on Risk
February 18, 2020
Daniel K. Tarullo, Harvard Law School
To be honest, I have always been a bit bemused by the longstanding theoretical debate as to whether banks are best understood as money creators or financial intermediaries.
Current Scholarship
Bank Supervision, the Great Depression, and the Creation of the New Deal
Authors: Sean Vanatta and Peter Conti-Brown
The banking crises of 1930-1933 created the Great Depression and with it the momentum that remade American politics
Virtual Currencies and the State
B. Maurer, Money at the Zero Lower Bound
February 20, 2020
Bill Maurer, University of California, Irvine
I picked up a copy of the Financial Times in the Munich airport on my way home from keynoting the Bundesbank’s biannual International Cash Conference.
Virtual Currencies and the State
L. Menand, Regulate Virtual Currencies as Currency
February 14, 2020
Lev Menand, Columbia Law School
Eleven years ago an unknown person—or group of people—going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin
Banking: Intermediation or Money Creation
H. E. Jackson, Towards a Mixed View
February 13, 2020
Howell E. Jackson, Harvard Law School
It’s a pleasure to participate in the launch of the Just Money Blog and congratulations to my colleague Professor Christine Desan for undertaking this new initiative.
Current Scholarship
Monetary Policy and the Top One Percent: Evidence from a Century of Modern Economic History
Authors: Mehdi El Herradi and Aurélien Leroy
This paper examines the distributional implications of monetary pol-icy from a long-run perspective with data spanning a century of modern economic history in 12 advanced economies between 1920 and 2015.
Current Scholarship
Financial History, Historical Analysis, and the New History of Finance Capital
Author: Barry Eichengreen
The traditional way of starting an essay on the history of capitalism is by not defining the term.
Current Scholarship
Money Creation in Fiat and Digital Currency Systems
Authors: Marco Gross and Christoph Siebenbrunner
To support the understanding that banks’ debt issuance means money creation, while centralized nonbank financial institutions’ and decentralized bond market intermediary lending does not, the paper aims to convey two related points
Current Scholarship
Payment vs. Funding: The Law of Reflux for Today
Author: Perry G. Mehrling
The analytical tension in post-Keynesian thought between the theory of endogenous (credit) money and the theory of liquidity preference, brought to our attention by Dow and Dow (1989), can be viewed through the lens of the money view
Current Scholarship
Workers, Unions and Payment in Kind: The Fight for Real Wages in Britain, 1820–1914
Author: Christopher Frank
Despite the dramatic expansion of consumer culture from the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards and the developments in retailing, advertising
Banking: Intermediation or Money Creation
R. Hockett & S. Omarova, What Do Banks Intermediate?
February 5, 2020
Robert Hockett, Cornell Law School
Saule Omarova, Cornell Law School
Apparently there still are people who believe that the principal role of commercial banks is to ‘intermediate’ between depositors and borrowers – lending the funds of the former to the latter at a premium, conveying a portion of that premium to the former, and pocketing the remainder.
About Just Money
On this website, we approach money as a legal project. Created to meet demands both public and private, money depends on law for its definition, issue, and operation. That legal structure of money – its design – matters deeply. In the words attributed to an early banker, “those who create and issue money . . . direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.” Our aim is to encourage discussion, debate, and scholarship on money’s design and its reform towards a world that is as just as it is (economically) productive. (See more)
Banking: Intermediation or Money Creation
M. Kumhof and Z. Jakab, Banks Are Not Intermediaries of Loanable Funds
January 29, 2020
Michael Kumhof, Bank of England
Zoltan Jakab, International Monetary Fund
Financial sector problems played a critical role in triggering and prolonging both the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2008.
Current Scholarship
Bagehot’s Giant Bubble Failure
Author: Andrew Odlyzko
Walter Bagehot is remembered today primarily as a proponent of the doctrine of lender of last resort, in which central banks pump money into the economy to ameliorate the damage from a financial crisis.
Current Scholarship
Banks are not intermediaries of loanable funds – facts, theory and evidence
Authors: Zoltan Jakab and Michael Kumhof
In the loanable funds model, banks are modelled as resource-trading intermediaries that receive deposits of physical resources from savers before lending them to borrowers. In the financing model, banks are modelled as financial intermediaries whose loans are funded by ex-nihilo creation of ledger-entry deposits that facilitate payments among nonbanks. The financing model predicts larger and faster changes in bank lending and greater real effects of financial shocks.
Current Scholarship
State Building for a Free Market: The Great Depression and the Rise of Monetary Orthodoxy
Author: David M. P. Freund
The U.S. government transformed American finance between 1913 and 1935 by assuming extraordinary new powers over the banking sector and the money supply. And the government’s actions were reliably controversial. Beginning soon after the Federal Reserve began operations and lasting through the reforms that restructured the institution during the New Deal, critics warned that federal overreach in financial markets posed an existential threat to the free-enterprise system.
Call or Papers
Call for Papers: Monetary Policy in Historical Perspective (16th-19th Centuries)
16 October 2020 – Keynote speakers: Francois Velde (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)
Organisers: Dr Stefano Locatelli (History, UoM), Dr Nuno Palma (Economics, UoM)
Submission closes: 31st January 2020 Acceptance notification: 28th February 2020
Abstracts submission: stefano.locatelli@manchester.ac.uk, nuno.palma@manchester.ac.uk
Registration is free; there will be a limited number of accommodation and travel grants available. Priority will be given to speakers without a faculty position (PhDs and Postdocs). Please, indicate in your email if you need financial support.
To submit papers please email the organisers – include your title and an abstract. There is no need to submit a full paper at this stage, although priority may be given those sending a full text. This workshop will bring together researches interested in exploring different policies and strategies adopted by various actors such as rulers, governments and ordinary people in time of monetary ‘crisis’, as well as normal times, between the 16th and 19th centuries. To what extent did political changes of a territory affects its economy and monetary system and vice versa, and what effects did those ‘local’ changes have on the macro level, i.e. on the process of integration of economic and monetary markets? These are key questions of the proposed event, which also aims at providing a comprehensive discussion of monetary and financial ‘crisis’, taking into account different phenomena such as the provision of precious metals, minting policies, money supply, monetary fluctuations, and financial market integration.
This one-day workshop will be organised on 16th October 2020 and will host Francois Velde (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) with a contribution on the Neapolitan banks in the context of early modern public banks.… more