A History of Central Banking in Great Britain and the United States [Paperback]

This 2005 treatment compares the central banks of Britain and the United States.This book shows that important continuities in central bankers behavior  response to incentives, desire for financial stability, and susceptibility to government pressures  go a long way toward understanding them, from their beginings in the Bank of England in 1694 and the first Bank of the United States in 1791, to the present Bank and Federal Reserve.This book shows that important continuities in central bankers behavior  response to incentives, desire for financial stability, and susceptibility to government pressures  go a long way toward understanding them, from their beginings in the Bank of England in 1694 and the first Bank of the United States in 1791, to the present Bank and Federal Reserve.Central banks in Great Britain and the United States arose early in the financial revolution. The Bank of England was created in 1694 while the first Banks of the United States appeared in 1791-1811 and 1816-36, and were followed by the Idependent Treasury, 1846-1914. These institutions, together with the Suffolk Bank and the New York Clearing House, exercised important central banking function before the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. Significant monetary changes in the lives of these British and American institutions are examined within a framework that deals with the knowledge and behavior of central bankers and their interactions with economists and politicians. Central Bankers behavior has shown considerable continuity in the influence of incentives and their interest in the stability of the financial markets. For example, the Federal Reserves behavior during the Great Depression, the low inflation of the 1990s, and its resurgence the next decade follow from its structure and from government pressures rather than accidents of personnel.1. Understanding monetary policy; 2. An introduction to central bankers; 3. Making a central bank: I. Surviving; 4. Making a cenl“%