Eric Tymoigne

Rogoff on radio today: if foreigners don’t buy treasuries then US citizens won’t get their welfare and SS checks. That’s just incorrect.

Broad point is that inflation is driven by wars, deflation is driven by recessions (1772 financial crisis, etc.).

1680-1681 is a puzzle as is 1741. No idea after reading economic history, war history, pandemic history.
Recession years comes from McCusker's The Economy of British America, Price dataset comes from Historical Statistics of the US.

Commodity Price Index in British Colonies with Wars (red), Major Epidemics (Yellow) and Contractions (Grey)

“The Origins of the Platonic Approach to Monetary Systems: Retracing European and Chinese Monetary Thoughts on Chartalism, Nominalism, and the Origins of Monetary Systems” is now on EconPapers at econpapers.repec.org/paper/prampr...

Confronting Financial Fragility, Worker Crisis, and Global Turmoil On June 16, 2025, I will welcome colleagues and friends to the 32nd Annual Conference of the Levy Economics Institute—our first in-person gathering since the pandemic, convening at a moment of extraor...

My thoughts on the significance of the annual Levy Institute conference at this moment in time.

There is still time to register and join us on Monday, June 16.
Link below.
www.levyinstitute.org/blog/confron...

"but did you even read it"

rohangrey.net/files/Abunda...

Nice. Dugger and Peach “Economic Abundance: An Introduction” is a good starting point on the topic.

end

James Harvey in his 1865 "The Exchequer Note versus the Sovereign" reached the same conclusion:

The policy was however short sighted because it lead to a major monetary contraction, credit crunch, debt deflation, widespread loss of properties and rise in inequality. Moore is very good at showing that Currency Acts were a major contributor to the rise of the revolutionary spirit. 6/

Given this failed, British creditors lobbied the UK parliament to forbid issuance of bills and to remove their legal tender status. They succeeded at that in the 1751 Currency Act for New England and the 1764 act for the whole colonies. 5/

This is actually a major source of frustration for British creditors that led them to first seek a valorist clause in contract (more bills to provide for fx depreciation), which they did get but the court did not enforce well (because too onerous for debtors) 4/

Moore explains very well that this is incorrect. Bills of credit were made legal tender for sterling debts and debtors did not have to compensate for loss of metal content or exchange rate depreciation. 3/

McCurker states: "In repayment of a debt of, let us say, £100 sterling, the onus was on the debtor to produce enough coin of sufficient weight of metal to equal the sum owed." That is he argues that the colonies operated under a metallist legal framework. 2/

Reading McCusker's"Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775"as a companion to Moore's "Promise to Pay" (reviewing it). McCusker provide a wealth of data (sorry, the economist in me needs those to anchor any discussion). Now, here is something incorrect in McCusker 1/n

This“wampum, wheat, land, guns, etc. were money” bc they were used as medium of exchange,legal tender or accepted in tax payment really needs to die.Messes up otherwise good monetary history.None of these things were ever money.Payment in kind, generalized barter, and bilateral trade are happening.

Keynote delivered yesterday on environmental issues and how to approach policymaking deal with them: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7revy...

Yesterday I gave a talk about the macroeconomics of the public debt. Link: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0w4i9...

New ASCE infrastructure report card is out. Average is C. Aviation, school and a bunch of others are in poor conditions.

Nathan Tankus points out that unlimited FDIC would help resolve this problem crisesnotes.com/the-night-th...

and that allowing the Fed to issue securities is a related issue crisesnotes.com/we-should-au...

🚨New Paper🚨 (hi law reviews!)

‘Digitizing the Fisc’ is the first article to address the current separation of fiscal powers crisis, exemplified by Trump's takeover of the Treasury's payments IT systems, through a tri-dimensional legal, political economic, & technological lens.

Inside Trump’s War on the I.R.S.: Dropped Audits and a Skeleton Staff President Trump is planning to gut the work force while trying to turn the I.R.S. into a more political agency.

Weakening tax redemption channels is a sure way to weaken a gov-issued currency. We need efficiency in tax collection: low cost of collection, easy tracking of dues owed and paid, eliminate loopholes, strong investigation team, no favoritism, etc.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/u...

With regulation catching up and a growing expansion of this payment aystem that could threaten financial stability ultimately the Fed will have to intervene to guarantee conversion ability into the dollar and across stablecoin issuers.

Basically a repetition of what happened with private banknotes

1- determination of which issuer is creditworthy (i.e. is willing and able to sustain conversion on demand at par): failure in the payment system
2- ability to convert on stablecoin into another as integration of payment system based on stablecoin develops

Stablecoin=promise to redeem (via conversion) at par on demand into dollar-denominated monetary instrument
Multiple issuers are emerging and two central issues will come up.

Chartalism=monetary instruments are negotiable financial instruments w zero-term to maturity.Valuation based on creditworthiness of issuer(ability & willingness to redeem its instrument at par on demand),not material used

Everyone can create monetary instrument.Hard part is to get them accepted.

Chartalism in action

What Are the Origins of the Money We Use Today? The late 19th century saw economists, mainly German and Austrian, create a mythology of money’s origins that is still repeated in today’s textbooks. Money is said to have originated as just another co...

Hudson on the origins of money
www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/07/w...

I asked Former Bureau of the Fiscal Service Employees to Interpret An Elon Musk Tweet. Here’s What they Told me Notes on the Crises pivoted on February 1st into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025. Today is Day Fifteen Read Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5...

ICYMI, I wrote a piece based on straightforwardly asking retired Bureau of the Fiscal Service employees to interpret a long Elon Musk tweet. Yes it takes an entire long piece to do that. Here's what they said.
www.crisesnotes.com/i-asked-form...