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This chapter examines possible regulatory updates to address the challenges of monetary sovereignty and singleness of money. These two challenges are particularly pertinent to the new means of payments enabled by the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT). These new means of payment include cryptoassets such as bitcoin and ether, stablecoins and tokenized deposits. The degree to which these new means of payment can be a threat to monetary sovereignty and singleness of money can differ widely, depending on the contexts of the jurisdictions, as well as the details of these new means of payment themselves.

Cryptocurrency arose, and grew in popularity, following the financial crisis of 2008 built upon a promise of decentralizing money and payments. An examination of the history of money and banking in the United States demonstrates that stable money benefits from strict controls and commitments by a centralized government through chartering restrictions and a broad safety net, rather than decentralization. In addition, financial crises happen when the government allows money creation to occur outside of official channels. The US central bank is then forced into a policy of supporting a range of money-like assets in order to maintain a grip on monetary policy and some semblance of financial stability.

In addition, this chapter argues that cryptocurrency as a form of shadow money shares many of the problematic attributes of both the privately issued bank notes that created instability during the “free banking” era and the “shadow banking” activities that contributed to the 2008 crisis. In this sense, rather than being a novel and disruptive idea, cryptocurrency replicates many of the systemically destabilizing aspects of privately issued money and money-like instruments.

This chapter proposes that, rather than allowing a new, digital “free banking” era to emerge, there are better alternatives. Specifically, it argues that the Federal Reserve (Fed) should use its tools to improve public payment systems, enact robust utility-like regulations for private digital currencies and limit the likelihood of bubbles using prudential measures.

Empirical evidence shows that banking development has a significant impact on macro-level economic growth through the finance-growth nexus and also highlights the prominent effect of development on local economy and household welfare, particularly in developing countries with restricted access to financial systems. The authors investigated the role of local banking development in affecting household welfare in Thailand which is a modest degree of financial access compare to other countries. The authors focus on the development of the banking sector in four dimensions, including financial depth, financial stability, financial efficiency and financial inclusion, and its impact on household welfare using the generalized method of moments approach to address the endogeneity problem. The authors employ biennial household welfare data from the National Statistical Office survey from 2007 to 2019 which covers all provinces in Thailand. The findings suggest that each type of banking development significantly affects household income and consumption in Thailand, although in different ways. Financial depth decreases income and consumption expenditure, while financial inclusion increases income and consumption expenditure (level effect). However, there are insignificant impacts on volatility of household income and consumption (volatility effect). Our findings prove that the implementation of policies to promote banking development either promote or decrease household welfare. This study can provide insight on policy impact and assist policymakers in considering the adoption of banking development policies to promote growth of the local economy, while at the same time aiming to reduce welfare inequality.

Charles Oscar Hardy (1884–1948) was a well-known though perhaps not leading monetary and financial economist of his time. He was and is important enough, however, to be remembered and studied a half century later (see Frank G. Steindl, Monetary Interpretations of the Great Depression, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1995; J. Ronnie Davis, The New Economics and the Old Economists, Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1971; and Allan H. Meltzer, A History of the Federal Reserve, 1913–1951, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003). Educated at Ottawa University, Kansas (AB, 1904) (a private university affiliated with the Baptist Denomination) and the University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1916), he taught at both schools as well as at the University of Iowa. He was Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, had a long-term association with the Brookings Institution, and was a frequent advisor to government agencies. Working when the gold standard was in effect, he discerned instability as the likely consequence of excessive gold stocks and resultant credit expansion. An advocate of central-bank monetary management, he worried over limits to its power to create monetary stability because of shifts in the balance of trade and in long-term investment, and called for major reform of the gold standard. Subsequently, he advocated activist monetary and fiscal policy. Hardy also contributed to the development of the theory of risk and uncertainty, a field dominated by his colleague, Frank Knight.

This research uses public information and represents an analysis of how the capital markets will be considered as an alternative for the microfinance entities in order to obtain better interest rates and new financial alternatives (diversify their capital structure) as well as develop their corporate governance (Bolaños et al., 2014). Peru has been one of the fastest growing Latin American countries in recent years. In microfinance, Peru has achieved considerable growth over time. According to the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and Coporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), Peru is a country with the best conditions for microfinance in region of Latin America and the Caribbean. This is reflected, in part, by a larger portfolio of microfinance loans and the best business environment in the region (IDB, 2010). We start by reviewing the history of this industry for the period 2009–2013. This overview will facilitate an understanding of this industry, its development, and the main participants in this sector; then we proceed by exploring the market structure, its nature, its characteristics, and the supply and demand forces, including the competitors and the size of the Peruvian financial sector. Finally, we focus on the process followed by Caja Municipal de Huancayo (CMAC) in order to list bonds and commercial liabilities on the Lima Stock Exchange, taking into consideration the regulation process; finally, the results of the operation are presented, This review will give a better understanding about the process of development for microfinance entities in a volatile macroeconomic context.

Traditionally, libraries have collected statistical data about their collections, acquisitions, lending, and inter-lending activities. In time, the number of statistics was enlarged and differentiated, and in many cases, it now comprises several hundred data points. These range from the number of incunabula or microforms in the collection, the expenditure on preservation or buildings to the number of issues made, claims and reservations placed or visits made to exhibitions and special events. These statistics are, for the most part, collected nationally, but libraries also tend to collect additional statistics, (e.g. for special tasks and activities like legal deposit right, special collections, or services for special user groups).

This is a case study on the implementation of shared services across back-office functions between the National Library of Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland in the period 2008 to early 2013. It describes the potential benefits of a Library doing business in a less conventional way, at a time when the public sector is facing challenges of high customer expectations and tight budgets. From 2004 the concept of building shared services in the cultural sector was promoted by the Scottish Government as a means of achieving improved performance and more cost-effective service delivery. The initial four attempts to create shared services in the cultural sector failed. This study looks at the first attempt that succeeded and draws out the factors contributing to that success. Key precursors to progress included finding common ground and developing trust between parties who were initially suspicious of each other, establishing an effective governance framework, obtaining ongoing commitment from senior management, and aligning everyone’s agendas to make them compatible. By 2013 the program had delivered a common Information Systems network, as well as two parallel finance systems sitting on the same server. In March 2013 the HR teams entered a phase of living together for six months to test their integrated operations prior to formally becoming a shared service, treating both the Galleries and the Library as a single client. Building a shared service with another cultural partner has been a useful, though demanding experience. Both organizations are better off for committing to sharing.

Mentoring is a concept that originated between 800 and 700 BC and which is still in existence in organisations irrespective of size, nature of ownership, type of industry or geographic location. In its most primal form it is regarded as a method according to which a less experienced employee (protégé or mentee) is guided and advised by a more experienced and skilled employee (mentor) in terms of life as well as professional skills. However, this definition has developed over time as organisations applied mentoring in a more structured manner and institutionalised it within formal organisational processes. Mentoring was, therefore, regarded as a method to “systematically develop the skills and leadership abilities of less experienced members of the organization” (SPA Consultants, 1995, p. 14). Mentoring has been in use within the library and information science profession from the mid-1980s and various publications have discussed the use of mentoring from an American, Australian and British perspective. However, relatively few publications are available regarding the use of mentoring within the South African contexts, and therefore an extensive discussion on the implementation of a structured mentoring scheme at the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) is included in the article. This study draws particularly on recent literature on the knowledge economy and more specifically knowledge management to suggest ways in which the concept of mentoring should be revised. Mentoring should henceforth be seen as a knowledge management technique to support the creation and sharing of tacit knowledge rather than merely a technique to develop less experienced individuals. This revised view of mentoring is of particular importance to ensure the sustainability of library and information service organisations in the knowledge economy.