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Laissez Faire Banking

Kevin Dowd

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The idea of free (or laissez-faire) banking has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance in recent years. It is a novel idea that challenges much of what many banking scholars still take for granted - that banking is inherently unstable, that the banking system needs a lender of last resort or deposit insurance to defend it in a crisis, and that the Government has to protect the value of the currency. Against this free banking sets an argument which is in essence very if markets are generally better at allocating resources than governments, then what is different about money and the industry that provides it and why? "Laissez-Faire Banking" is divided into three inter-related sections, dealing with the theory of free banking, historical experiences of it and present-day monetary and banking reforms based on free banking principles.

392 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 1993

About the author

Kevin Dowd

29 books6 followers

Kevin Dowd is an economist with research interests in private money and free banking, monetary and macro economics, financial risk measurement and management, risk disclosure, political economy and policy analysis, pensions and mortality modelling. He is currently Professor of Finance and Economics at Durham University Business School and a partner in Cobden Partners based in London.

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