Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Eric Fleischmann
“In libertarian and market anarchist circles, the concept of free banking has always been an important ideal for a genuinely free and healthily competitive society. This entails a monetary system where banks not only hold currency but can issue their own currency or banknotes without the need for a centralized treasury. As such, the supply of money would be determined entirely by the demand for it and the willingness of financial institutions to issue it — with differing reliability, interest rates, and general terms being core competitive factors. … Unfortunately, in the contemporary United States (and most of the rest of the world) we do not have a free banking system …. So while we should continue to advocate for a more open financial system, we should also take a look at what currently exists as a means to achieve more immediate proxies for free and mutual banking.” (05/23/23)