The Reasons of Passing the Federal Reserve Act of 23 December 1913. The Formation of Central Bank of the USA

Abstract

The Federal Reserve System, often called the Fed, is the central bank of the United States. The establishment of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 is conventionally viewed as the inevitable outcome of the turmoil surrounding the Panic of 1907. The Panic of 1907 was the last and most severe of the bank panics that plagued the pre-Civil War Era and the National Banking Era of the United States. Federal regulation was absent in the antebellum period with panics in 1819, 1837, and 1857. During the National Banking Era, banking panics occurred in 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, and 1907. Bank panics were characterized by the widespread appearance of ban runs, attempts by depositors to simultaneously withdraw their deposits from the banking system. Because banks did not (and still do not) keep a 100% reserve against deposit, it paid to be near the front of the line of depositors demanding their money when a panic blew up. What sets the 1907 panic apart from earlier panics was that the crisis focused on the trust companies in New York City. The National Banking Era lasted from 1863 to 1914, when Congress, in part to eliminate these recurring panics, after considerable debate, created the Federal Reserve System. Another congressional objective was to provide an institution that could centralize the clearing of payments across the nation. Congress also desired the government to have a central depository for its funds. The Fed’s principal goal of economic stability has not changed since its creation in 1913.