Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:30:38.169Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

IRVING FISHER, DEBT DEFLATION, AND CRISES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2013

ROBERT J. SHILLER
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reconsiders, in the light of the current financial turmoil, Irving Fisher’s 1911 theory of financial crises and his 1933 debt-deflation theory of Great Depressions. Particular attention is given to the role of high debt ratios, high leverage ratios, and changes in the purchasing power of money in Fisher’s analysis, and to Fisher’s compensated dollar plan to stabilize the purchasing power of money. It is argued that indexing the unit of account would accomplish Fisher’s goal of stabilization without the practical difficulties of Fisher’s compensated dollar plan.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 179 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Dimand, Robert, and Geanakoplos, John, eds. 2005. Celebrating Irving Fisher: The Legacy of a Great Economist. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Fisher, Irving, with Brown, Harry G.. [1911] 1913. The Purchasing Power of Money. New York: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Fisher, Irving. 1913. “A Compensated Dollar.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 27 (2): 213–235.Google Scholar
Fisher, Irving. 1928. The Money Illusion. New York: Adelphi.Google Scholar
Fisher, Irving. 1933. “The Debt Deflation Theory of Great Depressions.” Econometrica 1, 4(October): 337–357.Google Scholar
Kamstra, Mark, and Shiller, Robert. 2010. “Trills instead of T-Bills.” Economists Voice. http://www.bepress.com/ev/vol7/iss3/art5/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newcomb, Simon. 1879. “The Standard of Value.” North American Review: 223–227.Google Scholar
Reinhart, Carmen, and Rogoff, Kenneth. 2009. This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Shiller, Robert J. 1993. Macro Markets: Creating Institutions for Managing Society’s Largest Economic Risks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shiller, Robert J. 2003. The New Financial Order. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Shiller, Robert J. 2009. The Case for a Basket: A New Way of Showing the True Value of Money. London: The Policy Exchange. http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/publication.cgi?id=119.Google Scholar