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9851_193 | wing of the party; Brandeis agreed with Bryan. Wilson convinced them that because Federal Reserve |
9851_194 | notes were obligations of the government and because the president would appoint the members of the |
9851_195 | Federal Reserve Board, the plan fit their demands. However, Bryan soon became disillusioned with |
9851_196 | the system. In the November 1923 issue of "Hearst's Magazine" Bryan wrote that "The Federal Reserve |
9851_197 | Bank that should have been the farmer's greatest protection has become his greatest foe." |
9851_198 | Southerners and westerners learned from Wilson that the system was decentralized into 12 districts |
9851_199 | and surely would weaken New York and strengthen the hinterlands. Sen. Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma |
9851_200 | eventually relented to speak in favor of the bill, arguing that the nation's currency was already |
9851_201 | under too much control by New York elites, who he alleged had singlehandedly conspired to cause the |
9851_202 | 1907 Panic. |
9851_203 | Large bankers thought the legislation gave the government too much control over markets and private |
9851_204 | business dealings. The New York Times called the Act the "Oklahoma idea, the Nebraska idea" – |
9851_205 | referring to Owen and Bryan's involvement. |
9851_206 | However, several Congressmen, including Owen, Lindbergh, La Follette, and Murdock claimed that the |
9851_207 | New York bankers feigned their disapproval of the bill in hopes of inducing Congress to pass it. |
9851_208 | The day before the bill was passed, Murdock told Congress: |
9851_209 | You allowed the special interests by pretended dissatisfaction with the measure to bring about a |
9851_210 | sham battle, and the sham battle was for the purpose of diverting you people from the real remedy, |
9851_211 | and they diverted you. The Wall Street bluff has worked. |
9851_212 | When Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913, he said he felt grateful for |
9851_213 | having had a part "in completing a work ... of lasting benefit for the country," knowing that it |
9851_214 | took a great deal of compromise and expenditure of his own political capital to get it enacted. |
9851_215 | This was in keeping with the general plan of action he made in his First Inaugural Address on March |
9851_216 | 4, 1913, in which he stated: |
9851_217 | We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we |
9851_218 | had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step-by-step we shall make it what it should be, in |
9851_219 | the spirit of those who question their own wisdom and seek counsel and knowledge, not shallow |
9851_220 | self-satisfaction or the excitement of excursions we can not tell. |
9851_221 | While a system of 12 regional banks was designed so as not to give eastern bankers too much |
9851_222 | influence over the new bank, in practice, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York became "first among |
9851_223 | equals". The New York Fed, for example, is solely responsible for conducting open market |
9851_224 | operations, at the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee. Democratic Congressman Carter |
9851_225 | Glass sponsored and wrote the eventual legislation, and his home state capital of Richmond, |
9851_226 | Virginia, was made a district headquarters. Democratic Senator James A. Reed of Missouri obtained |
9851_227 | two districts for his state. However, the 1914 report of the Federal Reserve Organization |
9851_228 | Committee, which clearly laid out the rationale for their decisions on establishing Reserve Bank |
9851_229 | districts in 1914, showed that it was based almost entirely upon current correspondent banking |
9851_230 | relationships. To quell Elihu Root's objections to possible inflation, the passed bill included |
9851_231 | provisions that the bank must hold at least 40% of its outstanding loans in gold. (In later years, |
9851_232 | to stimulate short-term economic activity, Congress would amend the act to allow more discretion in |
9851_233 | the amount of gold that must be redeemed by the Bank.) Critics of the time (later joined by |
9851_234 | economist Milton Friedman) suggested that Glass's legislation was almost entirely based on the |
9851_235 | Aldrich Plan that had been derided as giving too much power to elite bankers. Glass denied copying |
9851_236 | Aldrich's plan. In 1922, he told Congress, "no greater misconception was ever projected in this |
9851_237 | Senate Chamber." |
9851_238 | Operations, 1915-1951 |
9851_239 | Wilson named Warburg and other prominent experts to direct the new system, which began operations |
9851_240 | in 1915 and played a major role in financing the Allied and American war efforts. Warburg at first |
9851_241 | refused the appointment, citing America's opposition to a "Wall Street man", but when World War I |
9851_242 | broke out he accepted. He was the only appointee asked to appear before the Senate, whose members |
9851_243 | questioned him about his interests in the central bank and his ties to Kuhn, Loeb, & Co.'s "money |
9851_244 | trusts". |
9851_245 | Accord of 1951 between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department |
9851_246 | The 1951 Accord, also known simply as the Accord, was an agreement between the U.S. Department of |
9851_247 | the Treasury and the Federal Reserve that restored independence to the Fed. |
9851_248 | During World War II, the Federal Reserve pledged to keep the interest rate on Treasury bills fixed |
9851_249 | at 0.375 percent. It continued to support government borrowing after the war ended, despite the |
9851_250 | fact that the Consumer Price Index rose 14% in 1947 and 8% in 1948, and the economy was in |
9851_251 | recession. President Harry S. Truman in 1948 replaced the then-Chairman of the Federal Reserve |
9851_252 | Marriner Eccles with Thomas B. McCabe for opposing this policy, although Eccles's term on the board |
9851_253 | continued for three more years. The reluctance of the Federal Reserve to continue monetizing the |
9851_254 | deficit became so great that, in 1951, President Truman invited the entire Federal Open Market |
9851_255 | Committee to the White House to resolve their differences. Eccles's memoir, Beckoning Frontiers, |
9851_256 | presents a detailed eyewitness account of this meeting and surrounding events, including verbatim |
9851_257 | transcripts of pertinent documents. William McChesney Martin, then Assistant Secretary of the |
9851_258 | Treasury, was the principal mediator. Three weeks later, he was named Chairman of the Federal |
9851_259 | Reserve, replacing McCabe. |
9851_260 | Post Bretton-Woods era |
9851_261 | In July 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated Paul Volcker as Chairman of the Federal Reserve |
9851_262 | Board amid roaring inflation. Volcker tightened the money supply, and by 1986 inflation had fallen |
9851_263 | sharply. In October 1979 the Federal Reserve announced a policy of "targeting" money aggregates and |
9851_264 | bank reserves in its struggle with double-digit inflation. |
9851_265 | In January 1987, with retail inflation at only 1%, the Federal Reserve announced it was no longer |
9851_266 | going to use money-supply aggregates, such as M2, as guidelines for controlling inflation, even |
9851_267 | though this method had been in use from 1979, apparently with great success. Before 1980, interest |
9851_268 | rates were used as guidelines; inflation was severe. The Fed complained that the aggregates were |
9851_269 | confusing. Volcker was chairman until August 1987, whereupon Alan Greenspan assumed the mantle, |
9851_270 | seven months after monetary aggregate policy had changed. |
9851_271 | 2001 recession to present |
9851_272 | From early 2001 to mid-2003 the Federal Reserve lowered its interest rates 13 times, from 6.25% to |
9851_273 | 1.00%, to fight recession. In November 2002, rates were cut to 1.75%, and many rates went below the |
9851_274 | inflation rate. On June 25, 2003, the federal funds rate was lowered to 1.00%, its lowest nominal |
9851_275 | rate since July 1958, when the overnight rate averaged 0.68%. Starting at the end of June 2004, the |
9851_276 | Federal Reserve System raised the target interest rate then continued to do so 17 more times. |
9851_277 | In February 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Ben Bernanke as the chairman of the Federal |
9851_278 | Reserve. |
9851_279 | In March 2006, the Federal Reserve ceased to make public M3, because the costs of collecting this |
9851_280 | data outweighed the benefits. M3 includes all of M2 (which includes M1) plus large-denomination |
9851_281 | ($100,000 +) time deposits, balances in institutional money funds, repurchase liabilities issued by |
9851_282 | depository institutions, and Eurodollars held by U.S. residents at foreign branches of U.S. banks |
9851_283 | as well as at all banks in the United Kingdom and Canada. |
9851_284 | 2008 subprime mortgage crisis |
9851_285 | Due to a credit crunch caused by the subprime mortgage crisis in September 2007, the Federal |
9851_286 | Reserve began cutting the federal funds rate. The Fed cut rates by 0.25% after its December 11, |
9851_287 | 2007, meeting, disappointing many investors who had expected a bigger cut; the Dow Jones Industrial |
9851_288 | Average dropped nearly 300 points that day. The Fed slashed the rate by 0.75% in an emergency |
9851_289 | action on January 22, 2008, to assist in reversing a significant market slide influenced by |
9851_290 | weakening international markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average initially fell nearly 4% (465 |
9851_291 | points) at the start of trading and then rebounded to a 1.06% (128-point) loss. On January 30, |
9851_292 | 2008, eight days after the 0.75% decrease, the Fed lowered its rate again, this time by 0.50%. |
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