What LawMicro Has to Teach LawMacro: An Exploration of the Rule of Law and Monetary Policy
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Cite JOURNAL ARTICLE
Style
Format
What LawMicro Has to Teach LawMacro: An Exploration of the Rule of Law and Monetary Policy
Boettke, Peter J. | Salter, Alexander William | Daniel, J. Smith
Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. (2024), Online First : pp. 1–16
Additional Information
Article Details
Author Details
Peter J. Boettke, Faculty of Economics, George Mason University Fairfax, USA
Alexander William Salter, Free Market Institute, Texas Tech University Rawls, USA
J. Smith Daniel, Department of Economics and Finance, Middle Tennesse State University , USA
References
-
Barro, R. J. and D. B. Gordon. 1983. “A Positive Theory of Monetary Policy in a Natural Rate Model.” Journal of Political Economy 91 (4): 589 – 610.
Google Scholar -
Bernanke, B. S. 2003. “‘Constrained discretion’ and monetary policy.” Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke before the Monetary Marketers of New York University, February 3. Accessed February 7, 2024. https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2003/20030203/default.htm#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20%20under%20%20constrained%20%20discretion,of%20the%20effects%20of%20policy.
Google Scholar -
Binder, C. C. 2021. Technopopulism and Central Banks. Cato Institute Working Paper. Accessed February 7, 2024. https://www.cato.org/working-paper/technopopulism-central-banks.
Google Scholar -
Boettke, P. J. and R. A. Candela. 2019. “Productive Specialization, Peaceful Cooperation and the Problem of the Predatory State: Lessons from Comparative Historical Political Economy.” Public Choice 182 (3 – 4): 331 – 52.
Google Scholar -
Boettke, P. J., P. T. Leeson, and D. J. Smith. 2008. “The Evolution of Economics: Where We Are and How We Got Here.” Long Term View 7 (1): 14 – 22.
Google Scholar -
Boettke, P. J. and B. Powell. 2021. “The Political Economy of the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Southern Economic Journal 87 (4): 1090 – 106.
Google Scholar -
Boettke, P. J., A. W. Salter, and D. J. Smith. 2021. Money and the Rule of Law: Generality and Predictability in Monetary Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar -
Bonefeld, W. 2012. “Freedom and the Strong State: On German Ordoliberalism.” New Political Economy 17 (5): 633 – 56.
Google Scholar -
Brainard, L. 2021. “Full Employment in the New Monetary Policy Framework.” Mike McCracken Lecture on Full Employment, Canadian Association for Business Economics, January 21. Accessed February 7, 2024. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard20210113a.htm.
Google Scholar -
Brennan, G. and J. M. Buchanan. 1985. The Reason of Rules. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Buchanan, J. M. 1949. “The Pure Theory of Government Finance: A Suggested Approach.” Journal of Political Economy 57 (6): 496 – 505.
Google Scholar -
Buchanan, J. (1968) 1999. The Supply and Demand of Public Goods. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Google Scholar -
Burns, J. 2023. Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Google Scholar -
Cachanosky, N., B. P. Cutsinger, T. L. Hogan, W. J. Luther, and A. W. Salter. 2021. “The Federal Reserve’s Response to the Covid-19 Contraction: An Initial Appraisal.” Southern Economic Journal 87 (4): 1152 – 74.
Google Scholar -
Cooter, R. D. and H.-B. Schäfer. 2012. Solomon’s Knot: How Law Can End the Poverty of Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar -
Easterly, W. R. 2014. The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor. New York: Basic Books.
Google Scholar -
Erhard, L. 1958. Prosperity through Competition. London: Thames and Hudson.
Google Scholar -
Eucken, W. 1952. Grundsätze der Wirtschaftspolitik. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
Google Scholar -
Friedman, M. 1947. “Lerner on the Economics of Control.” Journal of Political Economy 55 (5): 405 – 16.
Google Scholar -
Friedman, M. 1968. “The Role of Monetary Policy.” American Economic Review 58 (1): 1 – 17.
Google Scholar -
Frye, T. and A. Shleifer. 1997. “The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand.” American Economic Review 87 (2): 354 – 8.
Google Scholar -
Fuller, L. L. 1965. The Morality of Law. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Google Scholar -
Garrison, R. W. 2006. Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar -
Gelpern, A. and A. Levitin. 2020. “Considering Law and Macroeconomics.” Law and Contemporary Problems 83 (1): 1 – 18.
Google Scholar -
Gershman, B. 2015. “The Economic Origins of the Evil Eye Belief.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 110: 119 – 44.
Google Scholar -
Glaeser, E. L. and A. Shleifer. 2002. “Legal Origins.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117 (4): 1193 – 229.
Google Scholar -
Hayek, F. A. 1945. “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” American Economic Review 35 (4): 519 – 30.
Google Scholar -
Hayek, F. A. (1948) 1980. Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
Hayek, F. A. (1960) 2011. The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
Hayek, F. A. 1973. Law, Legislation and Liberty. Volume 1: Rules and Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
Hayek, F. A. 1974. “The Pretense of Knowledge.” Nobel Prize Address, December 11. Accessed February 7, 2024. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1974/hayek/lecture/
Google Scholar -
Hayek, F. A. 1988. The Fatal Conceit. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
Henrich, J. 2020. The Weirdest People in the World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Google Scholar -
Hetzel, R. L. 1997. “The Case for a Monetary Rule in a Constitutional Democracy.” Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 83 (2): 45 – 65.
Google Scholar -
Hetzel, R. L. 2023. The Federal Reserve: A New History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
Horwitz, S. 2000. Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Approach. London and New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar -
Kolev, S. 2017. Neoliberale Staatsverständnisse im Vergleich. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Google Scholar -
Kolev, S. and E. A. Köhler. 2022. “Transatlantic Roads to Mont Pèlerin: ‘Old Chicago’ and Freiburg in a World of Disintegrating Orders.” History of Political Economy 54 (4): 745 – 84.
Google Scholar -
Koppl, R. 2018. Expert Failure. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar -
Kydland, F. E. and E. C. Prescott. 1977. “Rules Rather than Discretion: The Inconsistency of Optimal Plans.” Journal of Political Economy 85 (3): 473 – 91
Google Scholar -
Lerner, A. P. 1944. The Economics of Control: Principles of Welfare Economics. New York: Macmillan.
Google Scholar -
Levy, D. M. and S. J. Peart. 2016. Escape from Democracy: The Role of Experts and the Public in Economic Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar -
Listokin, Y. 2019. Law and Macroeconomics: Legal Remedies for Recession. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar -
McCloskey, D. N. 2006. The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
McCloskey, D. N. 2010. Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar -
Menand, L. 2021. “The Federal Reserve and the 2020 Economic and Financial Crisis.” Stanford Journal of Law, Business, and Finance 26: 295.
Google Scholar -
Menand, L. 2022. The Fed Unbound: Central Banking in a Time of Crisis. New York: Columbia Global Reports.
Google Scholar -
Mises, L. v. (1931) 1986. Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Google Scholar -
Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.
Google Scholar -
Olson, M. 1982. The Rise and Decline of Nations. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Google Scholar -
Otteson, J. R. 2014. The End of Socialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar -
Powell, J. 2020. “New Economic Challenges and the Fed’s Monetary Policy Review.” Speech at ‘Navigating the Decade Ahead: Implications for Monetary Policy’, August 27, 2020. Accessed February 7, 2024. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20200827a.htm.
Google Scholar -
Powell, J. 2021. “Getting Back to a Strong Labor Market.” Speech at the Economics Club of New York, February 10. Accessed February 7, 2024. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20210210a.htm.
Google Scholar -
Röpke, W. 1959. International Order and Economic Integration. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.
Google Scholar -
Rothbard, M. 1960. “The Politics of Political Economists: Comment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 74 (4): 659 – 65.
Google Scholar -
Rouanet, L. and A. W. Salter. 2023. Central Banking and Mission Creep. SSRN Working paper. Accessed February 7, 2024. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4598286.
Google Scholar -
Salter, A. W. 2014. “Is There a Self-Enforcing Monetary Constitution?” Constitutional Political Economy 25 (3): 280 – 300.
Google Scholar -
Salter, A. W. and A. T. Young. 2018. “A Theory of Self-Enforcing Monetary Constitutions with Reference to the Suffolk System, 1825 – 1858.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 156: 13 – 22.
Google Scholar -
Schnabl, G. 2019. “The 1948 German Currency and Economic Reform: Lessons for European Monetary Policy.” Cato Journal 39 (3): 607 – 34.
Google Scholar -
Simons, H. C. 1936. “Rules Versus Authorities in Monetary Policy.” Journal of Political Economy 44 (1): 1 – 30.
Google Scholar -
Skinner, C. P. and C. Binder. 2023. “The Legitimacy of the Federal Reserve.” Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance 28 (1): 1 – 40.
Google Scholar -
Smith, A. (1776) 1981. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Google Scholar -
Sowell, T. 1980. Knowledge and Decisions. New York: Basic Books.
Google Scholar -
Vanberg, V. J. 2004. “The Freiburg School: Walter Eucken and Ordoliberalism.” Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 04/11, Walter Eucken Institute.
Google Scholar -
Wagner, R. E. 1993. Parchment, Guns and Constitutional Order. Northhampton: Edward Elgar.
Google Scholar -
Weber, M. (1923) 2023. General Economic History. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar -
World Bank. 2006. “Where is the Wealth of Nations?: Measuring Capital for the 21st Century.” Accessed February 7, 2024. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/edb4e944-8bba-5ed3-860b-340499d6a1ef/content.
Google Scholar -
Yeager, L. B. 1962. In Search of a Monetary Constitution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar -
Yeager, L. B. 1986. “The Significance of Monetary Disequilibrium.” Cato Journal 6 (2): 369 – 420.
Google Scholar
Abstract
Among LawMacro scholars, there is a growing interest in the incorporation of distributional goals into economic institutions and policies, especially central banks. We argue that this approach threatens to undermine the rule of law in monetary policy. This is troubling because the rule of law is necessary for maintaining monetary generality and predictability. Recent macroeconomic failures, such as the Financial Crisis and inflation following the Covid-19 pandemic, highlight the economic consequences of a lawless central bank. Unconstrained and discretionary central banking are only weakly democratically accountable, which raises legitimacy concerns with their pursuit of broader social agendas without explicit statutory authorization. We make the case for strengthening the rule of law to promote monetary generality and predictability and to better ensure democratic accountability.