Irving Fisher’s “100% Money” is remarkable in the context of our present credit crunch. While The Cobden Centre pursues copyright permission to scan and distribute this book, we offer this summary of the preface, foreword and first chapter, which outline Fisher’s proposal1.
100% Money
Designed to keep checking banks 100% liquid; to prevent inflation and deflation; largely to cure or prevent depressions; and to wipe out much of the National Debt.By
Irving Fisher, LL.D.
Professor Emeritus of Economics
Yale University
Irving Fisher (1867-1947)2 was an important American neoclassical economist who found his “debt-deflation” analysis of the Great Depression was overlooked in favour of Keynesianism. His theories have made a comeback since the 1980s and several important concepts are named after him. He laid the foundations of monetarism.
Fisher’s “100% Money” proposal was to raise reserve requirements against checking deposits to 100%. That is, to keep money on deposit at the bank safe and ready for withdrawal. This was startling in 1935 but, then as now, it represented a return to ancient principle.
Continue reading “Irving Fisher, 100% Money, 1935″
- Bold emphasis, errors and omissions mine. [↩]
- Wikipedia entry [↩]
