Murray Rothbard, in The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar (1974), maintains that fractional-reserve banking is fraudulent and inherently destabilizing of the economy. However, by considering how a regime of laissez faire in money and banking might operate, we may reach a judgment quite different from Rothbard’s.

Banking and FinanceEconomic PolicyEconomistsEconomyFiscal Policy/DebtPhilosophy and Religion
Other Independent Review articles by Michael S. Rozeff
Spring 2008 Anarchy, State, and Public Choice