George Selgin


George Selgin is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, where he is editor-in-chief of the Center's blog, Alt-M, Professor Emeritus of economics at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, and an associate editor of Econ Journal Watch. Selgin formerly taught at George Mason University, the University of Hong Kong, and West Virginia University.

Research

Selgin's research covers a broad range of topics within the field of monetary economics, including monetary history, macroeconomic theory, and the history of monetary thought. He is one of the founders, along with Kevin Dowd and Lawrence H. White, of the Modern Free Banking School, which draws its inspiration from the writings of Friedrich Hayek on denationalization of money and choice in currency. A central claim of the Free Banking School is that the effects of government intervention in monetary systems cannot be properly appreciated except with reference to a theory of monetary laissez-faire, analogous to the theory of free trade that informs the modern understanding of the effects of tariffs and other trade barriers. The free bankers argue that, viewed in light of such a theory, financial crises and business cycles are largely attributable to misguided government interference with freely-evolved and competitive monetary arrangements, including legislation granting central banks exclusive rights to issue paper currency.
Selgin is also known for his advocacy of a "productivity norm" for monetary policy—an ideal according to which the growth-rate of nominal gross domestic product should be such as will allow the price level to decline along with goods' real costs of production--that is, at a rate opposite the growth rate of total factor productivity. According to Selgin, by preventing mild deflation in response to productivity gains, monetary authorities risk inadvertently fueling unsustainable booms or economic bubbles, setting the stage for consequent busts and recession. Because it requires that aggregate spending grow at a steady rate equal to the trend growth rate of weighted factor input growth, Selgin's ideal amounts to a version of nominal income targeting, which helped to inspire and inform the post-Great Recession movement favoring NGDP targeting.
Selgin is considered a Bitcoin OG, having taken part in the original cypherpunk mailing list that led to Bitcoin's invention, which Hal Finney and Nick Szabo say he helped to inspire. He was one of the first economists to explore the economics of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He is also an expert on the history and economics of old-fashioned metallic coinage. His book Good Money tells the story of the private minting of coins during Great Brittain's Industrial Revolution. He is one of the foremost authorities on Gresham's Law—the oldest of all economic laws concerning money.
Since he joined the Cato Institute Selgin has become a leading critic of some of the Federal Reserve’s post-crisis policies, including its decision to permanently switch to an ample reserves or “floor” operating system, and its decision to build a “real time” retail payments network to compete with one established by commercial bankers. Most recently, he has taken on the growing movement to have the Fed make use of its Quantitative Easing powers, not solely to combat recessions, but as a means for funding ambitious government projects that can bypass Congress's normal appropriations process.
Selgin is the twin brother to author and illustrator Peter Selgin and the half brother to Indonesian anthropology expert Clare Selgin Wolfowitz. His father, Paul Selgin, was an inventor whose numerous patents include many for optical measuring devices for use in manufacturing.

Education

Books