True; and so can the economic instability that comes with the possibility of bank runs. Also, the argument that that possibility is worth accepting in exchange for greater economic growth can be made with FRB alone; Fed lending is not required. (Fed lending might make the argument easier to make, since it comes along with the government guaranteeing bank deposits, so that an ordinary bank run basically can't happen in our current system. Instead we just get occasional meltdowns of the entire economy; but it's easier to shift the blame for that.)
> I'm not sure that requiring real assets to back loans leads to more stability.
I certainly don't have a proof that it does--I don't think economics is anywhere near developed enough as a science to be able to produce such a proof. But there is an obvious heuristic argument: requiring real assets to back loans ensures that whatever the borrower does with the loan, it must provide enough benefit (on average--obviously there's always risk involved in individual cases, but that's true of any economic venture) to make him willing to bid away those real assets from whoever else wants to use them. In other words, it uses the price mechanism for the purpose intended: to channel real resources to their highest valued uses. But as soon as you allow loans to be made without real assets backing them, you break that mechanism, and at that point, all bets are off.
> If you believe that enough
I don't--not because the influence doesn't exist (clearly it does), but because nobody understands how the economy works well enough to make using that influence a net gain. We'd be better off if everyone admitted that nobody knows how to run the economy, and adjusted our expectations accordingly.
> Instead we just get occasional meltdowns of the entire economy
I think we have different metrics for what constitutes a meltdown. We haven't had another great depression, which is what I would consider a meltdown. We've had recessions, less than desirable economic growth over periods, but that's a far cry from a Grapes of Wrath dust bowl type situation.
> it must provide enough benefit (on average--obviously there's always risk involved in individual cases, but that's true of any economic venture) to make him willing to bid away those real assets from whoever else wants to use them.
That argument only works if you think the banks don't make their own assessment on the risk of individuals and whether they are even going to lend. If money was unlimited then that would be the case, but there's a cost to borrowing, and a cost to lending. In a well balanced system the costs of each are outweighed by the gains. As it is now, different people and different ventures get different rates because the risk is not the same. The Fed provides liquidity, which makes the market more efficient, and uses rates to simulate supply. The banks provide market pricing by assessing borrowers and additionally tweaking the interest rate up or down, further simulating supply.
> We'd be better off if everyone admitted that nobody knows how to run the economy, and adjusted our expectations accordingly.
We're driving in the fog. We have limited time to see the dangers and take action, but if we don't attempt to steer in any way, for all we know we'll just start going in circles. The clues that we're makign headway aren't always clear, but they do come occasionally. I would rather tweak the current method than abandon it entirely, as it seems to be working overall, even if not fairly (we're all gaining, just not at the same rate).
But we did have one, and it happened almost two decades after the Federal Reserve was put in place.
Also, I think the situation in 2008 qualifies as a "meltdown", even though it was not as severe as the Great Depression. It was just a meltdown in a reactor that had had some additional backup safety features put in place since the last one.
> That argument only works if you think the banks don't make their own assessment on the risk of individuals and whether they are even going to lend.
Of course banks are going to do that, but I don't see how that invalidates what I'm saying. In a banking system where there is no FRB and no fiat money, there is no way to expand the money supply at will to provide enough for everyone who wants a loan. So there will be more potential borrowers than there are real assets to lend to them. Obviously banks ultimately get to choose who they will lend to, but a key component of their decision is going to be what interest rate various borrowers are willing to pay. A rational bank will choose whichever set of borrowers will maximize its expected return, adjusted for risk, and the higher the rate a borrower is willing to pay, the more likely it is that that borrower will be in the set that maximizes the bank's expected return. See further comments below.
> As it is now, different people and different ventures get different rates because the risk is not the same.
Sure, and that would still be true in the hypothetical system I was describing; a borrower who was more risky would have to be willing to pay a higher interest rate. And a rational borrower would only be willing to do that if his expected return, adjusted for risk, was high enough to make it worth paying the higher rate. So there would be risk assessment being done on both sides. In other words, there would be a functioning price mechanism driven by supply and demand.
> The Fed provides liquidity, which makes the market more efficient, and uses rates to simulate supply. The banks provide market pricing by assessing borrowers and additionally tweaking the interest rate up or down, further simulating supply.
Yes--"simulating" supply. But why does supply have to be "simulated"? Because the usual price mechanism has been broken. In a market with a functioning price mechanism, nobody has to "simulate" anything.
> if we don't attempt to steer in any way, for all we know we'll just start going in circles
You're assuming that the entire economy has to be "steered" in a single direction. But an economy is not a monolith; it's billions of people each with their own needs and wants, trying to improve their condition through specialization and trade. Why does it have to be "steered"?
True; and so can the economic instability that comes with the possibility of bank runs. Also, the argument that that possibility is worth accepting in exchange for greater economic growth can be made with FRB alone; Fed lending is not required. (Fed lending might make the argument easier to make, since it comes along with the government guaranteeing bank deposits, so that an ordinary bank run basically can't happen in our current system. Instead we just get occasional meltdowns of the entire economy; but it's easier to shift the blame for that.)
> I'm not sure that requiring real assets to back loans leads to more stability.
I certainly don't have a proof that it does--I don't think economics is anywhere near developed enough as a science to be able to produce such a proof. But there is an obvious heuristic argument: requiring real assets to back loans ensures that whatever the borrower does with the loan, it must provide enough benefit (on average--obviously there's always risk involved in individual cases, but that's true of any economic venture) to make him willing to bid away those real assets from whoever else wants to use them. In other words, it uses the price mechanism for the purpose intended: to channel real resources to their highest valued uses. But as soon as you allow loans to be made without real assets backing them, you break that mechanism, and at that point, all bets are off.
> If you believe that enough
I don't--not because the influence doesn't exist (clearly it does), but because nobody understands how the economy works well enough to make using that influence a net gain. We'd be better off if everyone admitted that nobody knows how to run the economy, and adjusted our expectations accordingly.