A 300-year-old Example of Quantitative Easing

From the Economist:

"IF FIVE hundred millions of paper had been of such advantage, five hundred millions additional would be of still greater advantage." So Charles Mackay, author of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, described the "quantitative easing" tactics of the French regent and his economic adviser, John Law, at the time of the Mississippi bubble in the early 18th century. The Mississippi scheme was a precursor of modern attempts to reflate the economy with unortho