Abstract
Professor Huerta de Soto has proposed a defense of the Euro using the argumentation of the Austrian School of economics. Huerta de Soto main argument relies on the federal monopoly of money is a preferable situation than the monetary nationalism that prevailed before. Our article aims to open a debate on the question of the Euro. The main argument used in the discussion relies on the fiscal question. Public deficits and public debts in the Euro zone seem to dominate monetary institutions issues.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Mathieu Bédard for his help and careful review of this text. I would also thank Larry White and George Selgin for their helpful comments. All remaining errors are mine.
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To avoid any confusion, the reserve ratios observed in a free banking industry such as Massachusetts was 17% for gold/(deposits + notes) in 1858. The same ratio for the Banque de France was 58%. The paradox is the higher reserve ratio does not prevent the monopoly note issuer to increase its circulation, but competition prevented money substitute creation in the case of free banking.
- 3
See Nataf (1982), Gentier (2000,2003).
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- 7
A more detailed analysis of the Spanish crisis is done in Gentier (2012).
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See Gentier (2010).
©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin / Boston
