Renewing the Search for a Monetary Constitution: Reforming Government’s Role in the Monetary System

Join Russ Roberts as he interviews George Mason University economics professor Lawrence H. White about Renewing the Search for a Monetary Constitution — a new Cato book White has coedited with Victor J. Vanberg and Ekkehard Köhler.

Despite their substantial independence and discretionary powers, central banks have generally failed to achieve their goals of maintaining either low and stable inflation or tolerably low unemployment. Many blame monetary discretion for this failure, noting that such discretion tempts central bankers to engage in monetary “fine tuning” that ends up fueling booms and busts, leaving declared objectives to fall by the wayside. Should monetary authorities be reined in by a constitution? If so, how might this be done successfully? The essays in Renewing the Search for a Monetary Constitution, by Lawrence White and others, address these and other crucial questions.