Federal Reserve: The First Central Banking System

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Samantha Marsee Us Government Federal Reserve Andrew Jackson developed the first central banking system in the United States in 1791. The second central banking system was developed in 1816. For almost 80 years, the United States had no central banking institution, which led to a series of financial panics. In 1907, there was a banking crisis known as the Panic of 1907, in which the New York Stock Exchange fell about 50 percent. The 1907 panic eventually spread throughout the nation when many state and local banks and businesses entered into bankruptcy. A group of New York bankers got together and pledged large sums of money to get out of the recession. In 1913, the Federal Reserve System was formed under the Federal Reserve…show more content…
Elastic currency is one way the Federal Reserve came up with to avoid bank runs in which money is expanded or contracted, as economic conditions warrant. Next, is the check clearing system, under the check clearing system, Congress gave the Federal Reserve System the authority to establish a nationwide check-clearing system. The Federal Reserve has the authority and financial resources to act as “lender of last resort” by extending credit to depository institutions or to other entities in unusual circumstances involving a national or regional emergency, where failure to obtain credit would have a severe adverse impact on the economy. The purpose of keeping funds at a Federal Reserve Bank is to have a way in which private banks can lend funds to one another. Private banks are for-profit businesses but government regulation places restrictions on what they can do. The Federal Reserve System is the part of government that regulates the private banks. The Board of Governors is the part of the Federal Reserve System that is responsible for supervising the private banks.…show more content…
After this recession there was a long period of growth lasting from 1991 to 2000. Then in Spring 2000, the stock market took a huge dive, without recovery, followed by terrorist attacks on September 11, and shortly after the NBER declared the US was in a recession. The NBER stands for National Bureau of Economic Research, it is a private, non-profit, non-partisan research organization that officially declares recession. The federal reserves first priority is taming inflation, so none of these things happen. The Federal Reserve can prevent inflation by changing the interest rates on money that banks and business borrow. If it looks like the economy is likely to inflate, the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates. This reduces growth in money, making it more expensive for banks and businesses to borrow. Banks and businesses cannot expand if they can’t borrow. The less expansion, the less inflation. However, if the economy is slowing down, interest rates will decrease. This allows banks and businesses to borrow more cheaply, which results in them being able to higher more workers and produce more goods. The monitoring of inflation is very important in the US. Inflation has many negative affects. People on fixed incomes suffer, wages spiral up in order to keep up with the higher cost of goods and services, but still not high enough to keep
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