Readings in Money and Banking: Selected and AdaptedPhillips, Chester Arthur
General
Readings in Money and Banking: Selected and Adapted
Phillips, Chester Arthur
Banks and banking; Banks and banking -- United States; Money
1. "_The plan assumes the truth of the quantity theory of money._" There
is nothing whatever in the plan itself which could not be accepted by
those who reject the quantity theory altogether. On the contrary, the
plan will seem simpler, I think, to those who believe a direct
relationship exists between the purchasing power of the dollar and the
bullion from which it is made--without any intermediation of the
quantity of money--than it will seem to quantity theorists.
2. "_It contradicts the quantity theory._" This objection, the opposite
of that above, is raised by some, who, like Professor Boissevain,
believe in the quantity theory, but imagine that the operation of the
plan could not affect the quantity of money at all (or would not affect
it to the degree needed). But evidently an increase in the weight of the
virtual dollar, _i. e._, a reduction in the price of gold bullion, would
tend to contract the currency, by diverting gold from the mint into the
arts; because its reduced price would cause an increased demand and
consumption. A decrease, of course, would have the opposite effect.
3. "_It might aggravate the evils it seeks to remedy._" This objection,
raised by Professor Taussig and a few others, is based on the preceding.
It is claimed that an increase in coined money may take place for years
"without visible effect on prices; then comes a flare-up, so to speak."
I doubt if Professor Taussig meant the first half of this statement to
be quite so strong. The evidence only justifies the statement that the
rise is slow at first and rapid later while similarly the effect of a
scarcity of money is slow at first and rapid later. Professor Taussig
then proceeds to apply the same idea to my plan:
The cumulative consequence would be like the cumulative
consequence of a long continued decline in gold production.
After a season or two of declining bank reserves, tight
money, and so on, a sudden collapse might be occasioned, and
apparently caused, by the announcement of some particular
seigniorage adjustment. Then there might be a decline in
prices much greater than in proportion to the bullion
change.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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