Reddit reviews America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
We found 3 Reddit comments about America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Penguin Books
I can't recommend it - at all. I often look at the 1-star reviews on Amazon to see who really hates a book or product. Gives me a more nuanced look at it. Author seems to be a kook.
How about America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve. An exhausting, if dry and even boring, look a how the Fed was created. But at least it appears to be fact-based, and based on contemporary accounts at the time. The author spends a lot of time on the politics of how the Fed came about, and less time on more interesting topics, like: What is money? What else does a central bank do? Is crypto going to burn it all down?
There's a lot of paranoia about central banks. But they clearly have smoothed out the boom and bust cycles that used to plague this country. Apparently, the US was one of the last Western countries to adopt a central bank. I know, they are not perfect: see the Great Depression of the 30s, and the Minor Depression of 2008. But we would miss the Fed if it was gone.
Banks and cryptos are going to co-exist for a long time together. Frothing against bankers is understandable, even necessary, especially over the more egregious issues. But let's not forget that banks, and the central banks, of large, developed, technically sophisticated countries, play an important role in helping make everything run.
Check out America's Bank by Lowenstein, for the American historical context.
It illustrates the kinds of problems people looked to the bank to solve and why the US version looks the way it does. Also, why it was so controversial and took so long to develop.
Or, if you want a book that's not conspiratorial nonsense, Lowenstein's "America's bank" is quite good. Among other interesting facts, it shows that the Fed was not in fact created at Jekyll Island, and was the product of a year plus worth of senate negotiations, as legislators tried to find a solution that would please Wall Street and the populists then in power, by getting the agreement of William Jennings Bryan.