Essays on money and banking by Randy Wray's MA students at UMKC

For the next few weeks we will be running a series of articles on monetary theory and policy. These are final essays written by MA students in my class this past Fall semester. I was very happy with the results—students indicated that they had a firm grasp of both the orthodox approach as well as the heterodox approach to the subject. Most of them also included some Modern Money Theory in their answers. I asked about half of the students in the class if they would like to contribute their essay to this series. 

Sometimes students are the best teachers because they see things with a fresh eye and cut to what is important. They are usually less concerned with esoteric academic debates than are their professors. Note that these contributions are voluntary and are written by Masters students. I told students they could choose to use their own names, or they could choose an alias. Comments are welcome, but please be nice—remember these are students. 

For your reference, here were the topics for the paper. The paper had a maximum limit of 6000 words.

Choose one of the following. You must consider and address both the orthodox approach and the heterodox approach in your essay. Where relevant, include various strands of each.

A) What is the nature of money? Given the nature of money, what approach should be taken to policy-making?

B) What is the nature of banking? Given the nature of banking, what approach should be taken to policy-making?

C) According to John Smithin there are several main themes throughout controversies of monetary economics, each typically addressed by each of the various approaches to monetary theory and policy. In your essay, discuss how each of the approaches we covered this semester tackles these themes enumerated by Smithin. 

— L. Randall Wray | Professor of Economics, University of Missouri at Kansas City

Nature of Money

1. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money by Vincent Huang
2. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (2) by Matthew Berg 
3. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (3) by Jack Wendland 
4. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (4) by Kian Lua 
5. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (5) by Samuel Ellenbogen
6. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (6) by Andreas Lückert
7. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (7) by Marilynne Meikenhou
8. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (8) by Ken Yamat
9. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Money (9) by Lukas Kaluza

Nature of Banking

1. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Banking by Ryan M. Pope 
2. Essays in Monetary Theory and Policy: On the Nature of Banking (2) by Darren Prince