Jon Roland wrote:
JR) The thing to abolish is not the Fed in some form, but fractional reserve banking. (JR
The thing to abolish is not fractional reserve banking, but fraud (and legal tender laws). I agree with David Friedman that fractional reserve banking is not inherently fraudulent. A year and half ago, I had the pleasure of watching Prof. Friedman sit in a living room and systematically dismantle an overmatched gold bug's arguments against fractional reserve banking. The closest approximation I can easily find on the web is this wonderful little paper he wrote in 1982 for the Cato Institute: Gold, Paper, or...: Is There A Better Money?
Prof. Friedman (bcc'd), do you have a pointer to an online version of your (or anyone's) (admittedly somewhat obvious) argument that fractional reserve banking is not inherently fraudulent?