"Free Versus Regulated Banking" now available in paperback on Amazon

Click here to read the original Cautious Optimism Facebook post with comments

The Cautious Optimism Correspondent for Economic Affairs and Other Egghead Stuff has a new book out on Amazon: Free Versus Regulated Banking: Three Centuries of Crisis and Stability in Great Britain and North America for the General Reader.

For those new to CO or who missed it, nearly three years ago the Economics Correspondent began a series of articles on banking crises. What started as a few posts grew to thirty-five on a general history of banking, bank regulations, and financial crises in Great Britain, the United States, and Canada.

The conclusion? The origins of virtually every systemic banking crisis in history can be traced back to a central bank and/or some destabilizing government regulation(s), and the Correspondent provides the laws and subsequent financial crises to prove it.  

But who wants to read thirty-five online articles when they can have it all in a convenient paperback anyway? Chapters are short and written in non-academic style with illustrations. Also 313 pages including endnotes, sources, and three bonus chapters on the pivotal role of 1920's banking regulations in starting the Great Depression. 

An added bonus is any reader with questions gets direct access to the author through comments on Cautious Optimism Economics Correspondent posts.

A Kindle edition is in the works, and for those who might object to patronizing Amazon let us know if you’re interested in having the book also placed on Barnes and Noble’s website.

Chapters:

1. Introduction and Orthodoxy
2. British Parliament and the Bank of England
3. The Bank of England: Post-Napoleonic Reforms and Peel’s Act
4. The Bank of England: Bagehot’s Dictum and Stability Achieved
5. Addendum: Do Modern Central Bankers Really Abide by Bagehot’s Dictum?
6. Scotland’s Free Banking Era, Part 1
7. Scotland’s Free Banking Era, Part 2
8. Scotland’s Free Banking Era, Part 3
9. Scotland’s Free Banking Era, Part 4
10. Introduction to the United States and Canada
11. The United States: Crippled by Unit Banking Regulations, Part 1
12. The United States: Crippled by Unit Banking Regulations, Part 2
13. The United States: Crippled by Unit Banking Regulations, Part 3
14. The First Bank of the United States
15. The First Bank of the United States and the Revolutionary War Debt
16. The First Bank of the United States and the Panic of 1792
17. The First Bank of the United States and the Panic of 1797
18. The Second Bank of the United States and the Panic of 1819, Part 1
19. The Second Bank of the United States and the Panic of 1819, Part 2
20. Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Bank War
21. The American Panic of 1837
22. The American “Free Banking Era” of 1837-1862
23. The U.S. National Banking System of 1863-1914, Part 1
24. The U.S. National Banking System of 1863-1914, Part 2
25. The U.S. National Banking System and the Panic of 1893
26. The Panic of 1893 Retires a Banker Conspiracy Theory
27. A Glancing History of Canadian Banking
28. Canada’s Free Banking Era: Deregulation and Stability
29. Did Canadian Free Banking Have Any Regulations? Part 1
30. Did Canadian Free Banking Have Any Regulations? Part 2
31. Present-Day Criticism and the Post-Keynesian School, Part 1
32. Present-Day Criticism and the Post-Keynesian School, Part 2
33. Present-Day Praise and Disagreement
34. Why Was the Bank of Canada Established?
35. Canada’s Post-1935 Success and the USA’s Failures
36. Did Canada’s Glass-Steagall Safeguard its Banks in 2008?
37. What Does Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse Tell Us About Depositor Losses Under Canadian Free Banking?
38. What Really Started the Great Depression? Part 1
39. What Really Started the Great Depression? Part 2
40. What Really Started the Great Depression? Part 3
Notes
Sources and Credits
Index