This chapter examines the impact of the Federal Reserve System on money and banking in the United States. The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 by virtue of the Federal Reserve Act passed by Congress and signed by President Woodrow Wilson. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) provided not for one but for as many as twelve central banks. It was conceived as an answer to the great panics, but in this respect the System was notably defective. Nor was the System better as an antidote for an alarming epidemic of bank failures. Furthermore, the most severe inflation ever in peacetime occurred under its watch. The chapter considers the successes and failures of the Federal Reserve System and looks at another body established to study the management of money in the United States: the National Monetary Commission.
Rent-Seeking Origins of Central Banks: The Case of the Federal Reserve System