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18. “Unanswered Quibbles with Fractional Reserve Free Banking”

Abstract: In this article we reply to George Selgin’s counterarguments to our article “Fractional Reserve Free Banking: Some Quibbles”. Selgin regards holding cash as saving while we focus on the real savings necessary to maintain investment projects. Real savings are unconsumed real income. Variations in real savings are not necessarily equal to variations in cash holdings. We show that a coordinated credit expansion in a fractional reserve free banking (FRFB) system is possible and that precautionary reserves consequently do not pose a necessary limit. We discuss various instances in which a FRFB system may expand credit without a prior increase in real savings. These facets all demonstrate why a fractional reserve banking system – even a free banking one – is inherently unstable, and incentivized to impose a stabilizing central bank. We find that at the root of our disagreements with Selgin lies a different approach to monetary theory. Selgin subscribes to the aggregative equation of exchange, which impedes him from seeing the microeconomic problems that the stabilization of “MV” by a FRFB system causes.

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July 16, 2011, By David Howden, Philipp Bagus Filed Under: Libertarian Papers, Volume 3 (2011)

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  1. Understanding the Rothbardian Critique of Free Banking – Kristoffer Mousten Hansen | WallStreetWindow.com says:
    February 1, 2022 at 12:36 am

    […] Bagus and David Howden in their critiques of free banking (here, here, and here) argued that this is not so. The supply of bank money is not simply passive in response […]

  2. The Great Fractional Reserve/Freebanking Debate says:
    March 21, 2022 at 9:31 am

    […] Unanswered Quibbles with Fractional Reserve Free Banking, Libertarian Papers […]

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