Paul Gentle

Frederic Mishkin’s three traits of money are examined in light of Native American wampum. This paper explores some of these issues concerning Native American wampum and can be of help to economic historians concerned with money issues. The presentation is qualitative rather than quantitative. There is some attention given to the non-monetary uses of wampum in this article. In addition, a comparison of wampum to the stone money of Yap is provided.

Keywords: Native Americans, wampum, Dutch colonials, American colonial trade, necessary traits of money, Yap stone money.
JEL Classification: E40, N11

Knowledge in the economic and banking history of the United States, of the last one hundred years or thereabouts, is necessary in any discussions of even current economic and political policies. This article looks at major economic events in the last century, with some attention also given to surrounding political forces of these events. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt, with strong bipartisan support in Congress, was able to pass the Glass-Stegall Act, after taking office in the Great Depression. Politicians in the United States during the approximately twenty-five years prior to the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007 have both used legislation to remove regulations and also made sure that inadequate government personnel were available to audit financial institutions. An important part of confidence is a faith in government regulatory agencies that monitor financial institutions. Lax monetary and regulatory policies can create a real estate bubble. This happened in the most recent economic disaster, the Great Recession. Sometimes the Federal Reserve has pursued reasonable monetary policy and other times inappropriate decreases or increases in the money supply have created havoc in the national economy.

Keywords: banking, Federal Reserve Bank System, financial crisis, Great Depression, Great Recession, Taylor rule for central banks.
JEL Classification: G21, E5, G01, N11, N12

This examines the special use of art works as a store of value in Germany during the Third Reich era. Some Jews were able to buy their freedom, as the fascists closed in. Then as the Third Reich fell, some escaping fascists used art works to secure freedom outside of Germany. One of the characteristics of money is a store of value. When confidence in a currency is present, the more conventional form of money takes precedence. A respected, economic form of currency and coin has all three elements of money: medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account. This last trait is especially absent when using various art works as money, as there is no agreed upon unit of account with such different art. Furthermore, art works could not qualify as a medium of exchange, since only a very small amount of the population was involved in this way of dealing in art during the stressed times for the Third Reich.

On October 1, 2016, the Chinese RMB (yuan) will be included in the SDRs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Reserve currencies are select currencies that have special drawing rights (SDRs). This article examines some of the aspects of this impending change of including the Chinese RMB as a select currency. The U.S. dollar is expected to continue to dominate as a select currency, after October 1, 2016, for the foreseeable future. This article has been written so as to provide general economists with some understanding of special drawing rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and how the addition of the Chinese RMB will fit in, as of October 1, 2016

This article presents a case study on the efforts to reestablish ferry service for an isolated island-type community in Wilcox County, Alabama, known as Gee’s Bend or by the formal name of Boykin. Gee’s Bend, a community of inhabitants who can trace their ancestry to slaves on the antebellum plantation there, depended on the ferry to provide access to the county seat of Camden, the center for social and economic activity. There was no ferry between 1962 and 2006. For forty-four years the ferry did not operate, having had its’ cable deliberately cut so that Gee’s Bend residents could not get to Camden to register to vote. It was an attempt to lessen the political power of the African-Americans in the area. This article explains the key economic and political factors that resulted in restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend ferry.