The Endogenous Stability of Free Banking: Crisis as an Exogenous Phenomenon

Abstract

This article studies the main aspects of free banking to put forward the argument that such a system is endogenously stable and that financial crisis is an exogenous phenomenon. In support of this conclusion, it analyzes the cases of bank runs, concerted expansion and how free banking would affect business cycles according to different schools of thought. The article concludes that money can efficiently be a market phenomenon outside the state.

Keywords: free banking, bank runs, concerted expansion

JEL Classification: E02, E59