This issue of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics features articles that make important contributions to monetary theory and policy. Jeffrey Herbener and David Rapp draw out the implications of Mises’s theory of monetary calculation for the purchase or sale of business assets, particularly entire business firms. Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene, a former IMF economist, argue that 100 percent-reserve banking is an essential prerequisite for the restoration of the gold standard and outline a novel program for abolishing fractional-reserve banking and re-establishing gold money. Mark Thornton’s article challenges the literature that has noted a movement by the Fed and other central banks from relative secrecy to relative transparency in the conduct of monetary policy over the past couple of decades. Focusing on the year 2007, which falls between the year that the housing bubble ended and the year the financial crisis began, Thornton adduces strong evidence that statements by prominent Fed officials were grossly misleading, as a result of either deliberate deception, sheer ignorance, or both. The issue also includes reviews of important books and an enlightening exchange on a book reviewed in an earlier issue.
Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 19, no. 1 (Spring 2016) — full issue
Toward a Subjective Approach to Investment Appraisal in Light of Austrian Value Theory
Jeffrey M. Herbener and David J. Rapp
100 Percent Reserve Banking and the Path to a Single-Country Gold Standard
Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene
Transparency or Deception: What the Fed Was Saying in 2007
Mark Thornton
Review Essay: Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller
Reviewed by Mark Thornton
Review of The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression by Scott Sumner
Reviewed by Robert P. Murphy
Review of Choice Cooperation Enterprise and Human Action by Robert P. Murphy
Reviewed by Lucas Engelhardt
Review of Zur Sanierungs- und Reorganisations-entscheidung von Kreditinstituten (On Bank Restructuring Decisions) by David J. Rapp
Reviewed by Christian Toll
A Comment on Dr. Howden’s Review of Finance Behind the Veil of Money
Eduard Braun
Finance behind the Veil of Money: Response to Dr. Braun’s Comment
David Howden