The Money Interest and the Public Interest

by Mehrling, Perry

• ISBN13: 9780674584303
• ISBN10: 0674584309
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-01
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

The years 1920-1970 saw revolutionary change in the character of the monetary system as a consequence of depression, war, and finally prosperity. The same years saw equally revolutionary change in the character of economic ideas as the rise of statistics, Keynesian economics, and then Walrasian economics transformed the style of economic explanation. The two lines of change reinforced one another, as monetary events posed new questions that required new conceptual approaches, and as monetary ideas suggested possible directions for monetary policy.Against this background of change, Perry Mehrling tells a story of continuity around the crucial question of the role of money in American democracy, a question associated generally with the Progressive tradition and its legacy, and more particularly with the institutionalist tradition in American economic thought. In this story, which he tells through the ideas and lives of three prominent institutionalists, Allyn Young, Alvin Hansen, and Edward Shaw, progress is measured not by the swings of fashion between two polar traditions of monetary thought--quantity theory and anti-quantity theory--but rather by the success with which each succeeding generation finds its footing on the shifting middle ground between the two extremes.More than a simple history of monetary doctrine, the book makes a case for the continuing influence of a distinctly American tradition on the evolution of economic thought in general. In this tradition, monetary and financial institutions are shaped by historical forces and adapt to the changing needs of the economy.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(4)
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(12)
I Allyn Abbott Young (1876-1929)	13	(72)
1. Intellectual Formation	13	(18)
Richard T. Ely and English Political Economy	19	(5)
John Dewey and the Logic of Scientific Inquiry	24	(4)
Economic Theory and Statistics	28	(3)
2. Early Monetary Ideas	31	(15)
J. Laurence Laughlin versus the Quantity Theory	33	(6)
Irving Fisher and the Quantity Theory	39	(7)
3. War and Reconstruction	46	(16)
War Finance and Monetary Disorder	48	(6)
The Monetary Standard	54	(3)
Why Gold?	57	(5)
4. Monetary Management in the Twenties	62	(23)
Index Numbers and Price Stabilization	66	(3)
Production and Speculation	69	(3)
Ralph Hawtrey and the Control of Business Cycles	72	(5)
The Limits of Monetary Policy	77	(8)
II Alvin Harvey Hansen (1887-1975)	85	(74)
5. Intellectual Formation	85	(18)
Money and Technology	92	(4)
Continental Business Cycle Theory	96	(3)
Money, Income, and Albert Aftalion	99	(4)
6. Depression	103	(15)
Money and Depression	104	(3)
The Depression as a Business Cycle	107	(3)
Hansen's Monetary Thought	110	(4)
Social Control versus Laissez-Faire	114	(4)
7. Stagnation	118	(19)
The New Frontier	119	(4)
Big Government	123	(3)
Money and Sound Finance	126	(4)
Hansen and Keynes	130	(7)
8. The Golden Age	137	(22)
The Making of American Keynesianism	140	(6)
Keynesianism versus Institutionalism	146	(4)
The New Economics and Money	150	(4)
The Origin of Monetary Walrasianism	154	(5)
III Edward Stone Shaw (1908-1994)	159	(62)
9. Intellectual Formation	159	(20)
John B. Canning and Ralph Hawtrey	166	(3)
London, Robertson, and Keynes	169	(5)
Money in a Theory of Banking	174	(5)
10. From Money to Finance	179	(22)
Money in a Theory of Finance	184	(3)
Finance and U.S. Economic Development	187	(5)
A Theory for Policymakers	192	(3)
A Theory for Academics	195	(6)
11. Financial Structure and Economic Development	201	(20)
Financial Deepening	205	(6)
A Theory for Policymakers	211	(4)
A Theory for Academics	215	(6)
Conclusion	221	(8)
Notes	229	(16)
Bibliography	245	(36)
Index	281