Economics Lecture: The Historical Case Against the Federal Reserve

Economics Lecture: The Historical Case Against the Federal Reserve—
Regulatory Origins of American Banking and Financial Instability Before 1914

The Federal Reserve has received renewed criticism and scrutiny in the decade since the global financial crisis. Yet the Fed has large and powerful lobbies of apologists among the mainstream press, academics, and policymakers who have argued without the Fed the U.S. banking system would return to the more frequent and disruptive financial crises of the pre-Fed era (1792-1913).

While it’s true that the U.S suffered from frequent banking panics throughout the 19th century, was the absence of a central bank really the cause? And if so, why then during the same period did countries like Canada and Scotland experience remarkable financial stability without a central bank? Were in fact pernicious state and federal regulations the real source of the U.S. banking system’s fragility? And if so shouldn’t Fed apologists in academia and the mainstream press know better?

Chris Silber will discuss the regulatory history of U.S. banking including the real causes of frequent financial crises during the 1792-1913 period: restrictive unit banking laws, America’s antebellum central banks, and the post-Civil War National Banking System. The similarly unstable English and contrasting sound Canadian and Scottish systems will also be examined.

Chris Silber is a frequent attendee of GGLR and Free Exchange meetings and has previously presented on monetary history, business cycles, and the Great Depression.

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"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When government fears the people, there is liberty."
-Thomas Jefferson