Well, here’s my little story. My first books dealt with the “free banking “ era in the early 1800s in which there was no national bank (for some of the time) and banks competed openly by printing their own money. It worked very well-—certainly no weaker or panic-prone than any era with a “gubment” bank. So I was on a barge going down the Danube with a bunch of Nobel Prize winners (I wasn’t one) and found myself debating Milton about competitive money with me taking the free market position and Friedman defending the Fed!!
I too am a big fan of “free banking” and competition all around and think it will work better in today’s information sensitive world. Awesome story.
Have you seen or heard of this?
The 5 elements of good laws:
1. Generality - Laws shouldn’t be specially carved out to benefit one group or to attack or harm a narrow group of individuals.
2. Prospectivity - This is the constraint on ex post facto laws. Laws should always apply in the future and never to the past.
3. Publicity - Laws should be broadly published and well known, both to the representatives themselves and general public.
4. Consent - Laws must be generally acceptable to those who will live by them.
5. Proper due process - Due process means that the law is meted out equally and fairly with each similar crime being treated the same. Justice must be blind.