THE MENACE OF FISCAL QE

摘要

When John Ramsey McCulloch and Lord Overstone battled Thomas Tooke and John Fullarton over British monetary policy in the 1840s, they did so primarily through pamphlets - that long-forgotten nineteenth-century forum for intellectual debate that has given historians so much insight into the monetary thought of ages past. With The Menace of Fiscal QE, its short chapters and succinct 126 pages, George Selgin, Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, stands ready to resurrect that tradition. The clear and elegant prose for which Selgin has made himself known makes this latest addition a delight. Its topic is similarly alive and timely. As central banks around the world deliver one eye-popping monetary rescue package after another, Selgin's investigation deals with a policy question about the monetary financing of public expenditures: should the Federal Reserve's powers be used to fund fiscal expenses? The author's resounding answer is 'no'.