White, Selgin, Why Private Banks and Not Central Banks Should Issue Currency, ... - The Diigo Meta page

• 02 Apr 18
  

  John Kiff

  "In all but a few areas of the world today (Northern Ireland, Scotland, and for the time being Hong Kong), currency is a nationalized industry. Treasury departments issue coins; the state-owned enterprises known as central banks issue paper notes. It was not always so. Private banks were the main issuers of paper currency in the United States and Canada a century ago, and were the sole issuers in virtually every country two centuries ago."

  Bitcoin

• 22 Nov 08
  

  Dijo John
• 21 Mar 08
  

  tony curzon price

  The origin of the "greenback": ciil war finance, when you couldn't tax your opponent

  subprime

  • If state bank notes weren't really so bad, why were they taxed out of existence? To finance the Civil War, the Congress first empowered the Union's Treasury Department to issue over $400 million worth of U.S. Notes or "greenbacks." Congress then went on to establish a new system of federally chartered banks, which were authorized to issue another $300 million of National Bank notes provided they purchased federal bonds as backing. The Treasury realized that all this new currency threatened to cause a substantial increase in prices, but was unwilling to deny itself the fiscal advantages that the new currency would provide. Instead of issuing fewer greenbacks or further limiting the stock of National Bank notes, it made the state banks into scapegoats, forcing them to retire all $200 million of their notes, including some of the best currency the nation had ever known.⁵

Would you like to comment?

Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.