Monetary Theory And Policy From Hume And Smith To Wicksell: Money, Credit, And The Economy (historical Perspectives On Modern Economics)
by Arie Arnon /
2010 / English / PDF
2.3 MB Download
This book provides a comprehensive survey of the major developments
in monetary theory and policy from David Hume and Adam Smith to
Walter Bagehot and Knut Wicksell. In particular, it seeks to
explain why it took so long for a theory of central banking to
penetrate mainstream thought. The book investigates how major
monetary theorists understood the roles of the invisible and
visible hands in money, credit, and banking; what they thought
about rules and discretion and the role played by commodity-money
in their conceptualizations; whether or not they distinguished
between the two different roles carried out via the financial
system - making payments efficiently within the exchange process
and facilitating intermediation in the capital market; how they
perceived the influence of the monetary system on macroeconomic
aggregates such as the price level, output, and accumulation of
wealth; and finally, what they thought about monetary policy. The
book explores the analytical dimensions in the various monetary
theories while emphasizing their policy consequences. The book
highlights the work of a number of pioneering theoreticians. Among
these Henry Thornton stands out, primarily because of his
innovative analyzis of the complicated phenomena that developed
after the introduction of an inconvertible monetary system in 1797.
A major question addressed by the book is why theoreticians and
policymakers were so resistant to his ideas for so many years.
This book provides a comprehensive survey of the major developments
in monetary theory and policy from David Hume and Adam Smith to
Walter Bagehot and Knut Wicksell. In particular, it seeks to
explain why it took so long for a theory of central banking to
penetrate mainstream thought. The book investigates how major
monetary theorists understood the roles of the invisible and
visible hands in money, credit, and banking; what they thought
about rules and discretion and the role played by commodity-money
in their conceptualizations; whether or not they distinguished
between the two different roles carried out via the financial
system - making payments efficiently within the exchange process
and facilitating intermediation in the capital market; how they
perceived the influence of the monetary system on macroeconomic
aggregates such as the price level, output, and accumulation of
wealth; and finally, what they thought about monetary policy. The
book explores the analytical dimensions in the various monetary
theories while emphasizing their policy consequences. The book
highlights the work of a number of pioneering theoreticians. Among
these Henry Thornton stands out, primarily because of his
innovative analyzis of the complicated phenomena that developed
after the introduction of an inconvertible monetary system in 1797.
A major question addressed by the book is why theoreticians and
policymakers were so resistant to his ideas for so many years.
