While ethical implications of direct taxation systems have recently received renewed attention, a more veiled scheme remains unnoticed: inflation. We overview the causes of inflation and assess its consequences. Salient wealth redistributions are a defining feature of inflation, as savers and...

The financial crisis has led to new interest in the ethics of financial markets. In this article we further the debate on the nature of banking contracts by showing that the fundamental subjective purposes of loan and deposit contracts are irreconcilable. Any resultant mixture of the two...

Depositors have perceived banks as acting unethically during the most recent recession. One area of consternation is the ambiguity of the legal obligations entailed by the deposit contract when it is backed with only fractional reserves. In this article we apply an existing analysis of the...

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) baptized the idea that the gain of some is caused by the loss of others as the “Montaigne dogma.” Mises considered the fallacy to be very widespread and sufficiently noteworthy that he devoted chapter 24 of his magnum opus Human Action to refuting the idea. Casto...

In the pages of this journal, a fruitful debate has evolved on the ethical legitimacy of fractional-reserve banking. In this article we respond to the new arguments raised by Evans (forthcoming) as we clarify our (Bagus, Howden and Gabriel 2015) position on the unethical and illegitimate nature...

What role do demand deposits serve in the financial system? The answer to this simple question has great implications in keeping the legal terms of the contract consistent with the demands of the financial system. Demand deposits are a perfect monetary substitute. Since money is only held to...

Must banks match asset and liability maturities, as William Barnett and Walter E. Block (2009, 2011) as well as Ivan Jankovic (2011) surmise? While we agree with these authors that issuances of fiduciary media breed financial instability, we disagree that maturity transformation represents such...

Recently, attention has been drawn to compositional changes in the Federal Reserve System's asset holdings. While much attention has been drawn to the deterioration of the balance sheet of the Fed in the face of the current crisis, an analysis of the balance sheet policies of the Eurosystem is...

The balance sheet developments of the Federal Reserve System have received increased attention during recent events. The Fed has expanded its balance sheet and also changed its composition in order to support the financial system. As a consequence the average quality of the assets have, on...

Barnett and Block (2008) attack the heart of modern banking by claiming that the practice of borrowing short and lending long is illicit. While their claim of illegitimacy concerning fractional reserve banking can be defended, their justification lacks substance. Their claim is herein...