In comparing pre— and post—Federal Reserve Act business cycles we have again tended to set aside the interwar period, as if allowing for a long interval during which the Fed had yet to discover its sea legs. Nevertheless, the Fed’s interwar record, and especially its record during the Great Depression, cannot be overlooked altogether in a study purporting to assess its overall performance. And that record was, by most modern accounts, abysmal.

But the Fed entered the Great Depression with very large holdings of excess gold reserves, and still held excess reserves at the time of the national bank holiday, when gold payments were suspended.

Our review of the Fed’s performance raises two very distinct questions: Might the United States have done better than to have established the Fed in 1914, and might it do better than to retain it today? While the first question is of interest to economic historians, the second should be of interest to policymakers.

Ni h gg h eer

Dumpster fire deadlock player. Virgin ass ♥♥♥♥♥♥ scrub

♥♥♥♥