Description
Book SynopsisThe US in 1913 was one of the last major economies to establish an institution of a central bank. The book examines, however, the history and evolution of central banking in the US from the perspective of central banking functionsi.e. aggregator of private lending to the federal government, fiscal agent for the government, regulator of money supply, monopoly over currency issuance, banking system supervision, and lender of last resort. The evolution of central banking functions is traced from earliest pre-1987 proposals, through the Constitutional Convention and Congressional debates on Hamilton's 1st Report on Credit, the rise and fall of the 1st and 2nd Banks of the United States, through the long period of the National Banking System, 1862-1913.
The book describes how US federal governmentsoften in cooperation with the largest US private banks in New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere in the northeastattempted to expand and develop those functions, sometimes s
Trade ReviewWhen the Federal Reserve came into existence in 1913, the name of the institution deliberately did not include the words central bank. As Rasmus points out, since the time of Hamilton, there had been a tension between the need for a central bank and the centralization of economic and political power that such an entity would represent. Better then to set up a system of regional banks vested with the power to issue a single currency, regulate interest rates, and serve as the lender of last resort. The Fed’s structure departed from Hamilton’s notion of a hybrid bank that merged private and public interests. Early experiments, such as the First Bank of the United States, foundered in large part because of the subjugation of the public interest by private banks beholden to their shareholders. Rasmus deftly limns Hamilton’s vision for a central bank, and the description of the myriad financial crises and banking panics dotting the 19th and early 20th centuries highlights the need for a monetary authority independent of both political pressure and private interests. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
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Over the past 12 years, Dr. Jack Rasmus is a prolific writer on the state of the global and U.S. economy, and critic of current and former fiscal and monetary policy. Dr. Rasmus extends his research, allowing us to see the current Federal Reserve from a historical-political-policy and economic context, and how the bank evolved over the years; however, it seems the bank continues to make the same mistakes as earlier banks: excessive money supply, lack of supervision, speculative lending, asset price bubbles, bank bailouts, and lower standards of living-social welfare. Seems there needs to be central bank reform. -- Lawrence A. Souza, St. Mary's College
Table of ContentsChapter One: The Evolution of Central Banking Functions in the US
Chapter Two: Hamilton’s Vision
Chapter Three: The 1st Bank of the US as Central Bank
Chapter Four: The 2nd Bank of the US as Central Bank
Chapter Five: Jackson Contra Central Banking
Chapter Six: From Free Banking to National Banking
Chapter Seven: The Legacies of National Banking: 1873-1898
Chapter Eight: Panic of 1907 & the Treasury’s Last Hurrah
Chapter Nine: The Road to the Fed, 1903-1913
Chapter Ten: The Fed as Bank of Bankers, 1913-1929
