In Ireland, there was a bank strike that led to a complete shut-down of the main part of the banking system from May to November 1970. The effects of this strike were surprisingly limited. This had led some observers to conclude that trade credit can easily substitute for bank deposits as a...

The New Monetary Economics predicts that a low-transaction-cost world will be characterised by monetary separation. Current innovations in the payment system seem to bring us closer to such a moneyless world. However, market microstructure theory suggests that transaction costs will not fall to...