Making Money Work

The Global Financial Crisis broke the monetary system. Here's how to fix it. In Making Money Work: How to Rewrite the Rules of Our Financial System, Matt Sekerke and Steve H. Hanke deliver a rigorous and fascinating exploration of the monetary economy. You'll find a detailed and clear roadmap of how and why fiat money is created and destroyed, its connections to the broader economy, and the objective mechanisms that underwrite and maintain its value. In their exploration, Sekerke and Hanke solve many problems and puzzles and shed light on several important questions: Why economists misunderstand the structure and function of the monetary systemThe central role of the commercial banking system in fiat money regimes, and why commercial banks are not like other financial intermediariesThe economic and regulatory constraints on bank money creationThe interplay between banking and capital markets in funding investment projectsHow the “banks” that dominate the international financial landscape distort the lines between banking and capital markets businessWhy banking regulation and fiscal policy determine and constrain monetary policy to an equal or greater extent than central bank actions Sekerke and Hanke trace important post-crisis policy developments and sketch the broad strokes of a new operating model that would restore the performance of the monetary system and make better use of aggregate savings: Making neutrality the explicit goal of monetary policy, properly understoodIncreasing the supply of bankable projects and keeping them on bank balance sheetsBreaking the financial system's fatal attraction to land and real estateReducing regulatory distortions in lending marketsReforming universal banking institutions and stimulating competitionTransitioning to a quantity-based monetary policy framework An engaging and incisive guide to the global systems of money and banking, Making Money Work is destined to become a sought-after classic for bankers, finance professionals, policymakers, regulators, academics, and laypeople with an interest in money and banking.