Stabilizing the Dollar.

New York: The Macmillan Company,, 1920. A particularly nice copy First edition, first printing, an exceptionally nice copy, and an important contribution to monetary policy even if the proposal was not adopted. Fisher proposes a "compensated dollar plan" where the dollar would be tied to the gold standard but with the gold convertibility on a variable rather than fixed level. "Stabilizing the Dollar contained an ingenious scheme for stabilising the purchasing power of money under a convertible gold standard by varying the official price of gold inversely with an index of prices, a system which could be adopted by one country combined with a flexible exchange rate for its currency or by all countries operating with fixed exchange rates" (Blaug, p. 80). The policy, Fisher argued, would stabilise the price level, avoiding the economic fluctuations caused by changes in the purchasing power of the dollar. Fisher continued to promote the policy as late as 1930, but "he failed to persuade policy makers or most economists that his plan represented stabilization rather than destabilizing tinkering with the gold standard" (Biographical Dictionary of American Economists, vol. I, p. 288). Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Slight peripheral rubbing, slight indentation at top of first few leaves; a bright, tight, and square copy, with clean and fresh contents. Fisher M-620; IESS 1920. Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes.