>Without a central bank, how is the money supply controlled?
By natural business cycle of economic expansion/ contraction. Cost of money fluctuates, when it goes up there are recessions that clear up the inefficiencies (i.e. all businesses that produce return below required market rate go bust). That's what lacking today thanks to central banks' intervention. They postpone the cleansing as much as possible, until the disbalances grow up in such a monster as we see today.
The problem of course is that people don't like even mild recessions and politicians are following them. The Fed system was setup in 1913 after the population was fed up with regular boom/busts of late 1800s/early 1900s.
By natural business cycle of economic expansion/ contraction. Cost of money fluctuates, when it goes up there are recessions that clear up the inefficiencies (i.e. all businesses that produce return below required market rate go bust). That's what lacking today thanks to central banks' intervention. They postpone the cleansing as much as possible, until the disbalances grow up in such a monster as we see today.
The problem of course is that people don't like even mild recessions and politicians are following them. The Fed system was setup in 1913 after the population was fed up with regular boom/busts of late 1800s/early 1900s.