From: kkirksey@world.std.com (Ken Kirksey)
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 95 12:43:32 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Money and Banking
Message-ID: <199501242043.AA18840@world.std.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Message-Id: <v01510103ab4996dfb4fc@DialupEudora>

This came to me from the Laissez Faire mailing list.   Looks like this
book might present a good case for non-government e-cash.

Ken

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A powerful case for "free banking"--
government failure far worse than market failure

MONEY AND BANKING
The American Experience
George Edward Durell Foundation
introduction by Clifford F. Thies
(reviewed by Jim Powell)

     This comprehensive history of American banking helps show
why the most serious monetary crises occur because of government
failures, not market failures. Consequently, we need less
government intervention in banking, not more. Ultimate objective:
"free banking" which would enable everyone to be best-protected
by open competition.
     Contributors here include many leading lights of "free
banking" scholarship and central bank criticism: Kevin Dowd,
Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Dwight Lee, J. Huston McCulloch, Joseph T.
Salerno, Anna J. Schwartz, George A. Selgin, Richard Timberlake
and Lawrence H. White. Their papers--10 altogether--were
originally presented at the 1990 Durell Conference on Money and
Banking.
     They cover the entire history of banking in the United
States. They show why, contrary to conventional dogmas, "free
banks" were remarkably dependable and gained widespread
acceptance for their banknotes... how private bank clearinghouse
associations helped maintain overall stability while disciplining
bad bankers.
     The authors go on to make clear why banking crises resulted
from government intervention... how states undermined "free
banks" by forcing them to load up with state government debt,
often defaulted on... four ways Civil War era federal banking
laws hobbled the U.S. banking system... how government-enforced
unit banking (no branches permitted) promoted bank failures,
especially in agricultural and mining regions... why government
deposit insurance triggered conflagrations of corruption and
banking crises... why U.S. banking was decidedly more stable
before the advent of the Federal Reserve System--and how it
caused chronic inflation as well as crushing depression.
     This book shares many other revealing insights as well. For
example, why the Supreme Court once ruled that legal tender laws
violate the Fifth Amendment... how, despite their wretched
failures, Federal Reserve officials successfully lobbied for even
more power over banking and the economy. Excellent material here.

     "Virtually all major monetary and banking problems in U.S.
history appear to have their root cause in government
interference of some sort. The major historical banking problems--
banking instability before the Civil War, banking instability,
recurrent financial crisis, the inelastic currency, and the
stunted growth of U.S. banking after the Civil War; the banking
instability of the 1920's and the banking collapses of the
1930's, and the failures of historical and contemporary liability
insurance schemes--can all be traced to a great or lesser extent
to government interference in banking."
--Kevin Dowd in *Money and Banking*

Book No. CB6245 (hardcover) 271p.    publisher's price $59.50
                              LAISSEZ FAIRE PRICE ONLY $29.95

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Thanks,

Chris

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Chris Whitten                             LFB@panix.com 
Laissez Faire Books                      1-800-326-0996
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