1. Basics of Central Banking & Origins of U.S. Central Banking
Dr. D. Foster – ECO 473 – Money & Banking

2. Free Banking & Inflation
No government control.
No government regulation.
Entry and exit is free.
Subject only to legal requirement to pay off debts.

3. What limits excess bank note issue?
Trust.
Extent to which we use bank notes.
Fear of a bank run.
If loans are sound, then bank should be able to liquidate without loss to depositors.
Once started it is impossible to stop.
Limited clientele as a day-to-day restraint.
Conclusion: Free banking non-inflationary

4. Other Free Banking Issues
Forces at work to consolidate; weakens restraint.
But, forming cartels is quite unlikely.
International gold flows would still limit a monopoly bank.
Hume/Ricardo “specie flow price mechanism.”
Fractional reserve banking as causing boom/bust cycle.
Mises: “[F]reedom in the issuance of banknotes [will narrow] down the use of banknotes…”

5. Central Banking Government privilege or control.
Monopoly on note issue.
Tend to centralize holding of gold.
Can prevent individual bank collapse.
Will expand (contract) the MS by expanding (contracting) bank reserve deposits.
Assuming banks are “fully loaned up” the MS is: Notes in circulation (1/rr)*(Bank reserves)
Since banks earn their profits by creating new money and lending it out, banks will keep fully loaned up unless highly unusual circumstances prevail. (136)

6. Free Banking vs. Central Banking
With free banking what happens to the MS when depositors cash out some of their DD for banknotes?
Nothing. Only the form of the MS changes; from DD to banknotes.

7. Free Banking vs. Central Banking
With central banking what happens to the MS when depositors cash out some of their DD for banknotes?
The bank loses liabilities to the CB. To restore reserve balance, loans, DD and MS must fall.

8. Central Banking – The Bank of England
Created in 1694
Bought gov’t bonds and issued notes.
Held all government debt.
Notes were not “legal tender,” but widely accepted.
Insolvent in 2 years.
Parliament allowed them to suspend specie payment.
Brief competition (Nat’l Land Bank; South Seas)
1708: monopoly on bank notes & short term loans.
Late 1700s, massive suspension lasted 24 years.
1833: notes made legal tender.
Peel Act – limit fractional reserve notes
Failed to recognize deposits as money.

9. Central Banking - The 1st and 2nd BUS
Mercantilist movement behind banks.
Fed owns 20%, deposits funds here.
Banks buy government debt; issue notes.
wholesale prices up 72%.
Periodic specie suspension and bank panics.
BUS will hold bank notes.
2nd BUS inflates, then deflates in 1819.
“The bank was saved, but the people ruined.”
Jackson kills the 2nd BUS.

10. The “Free Banking” Era: 1836-1863
Van Buren sets up Independent Treasury System
Came and went and lasted only until Civil War.
Fed’l government held only specie, not paper.
Decentralized banking
Still heavily regulated.
State banks required to hold state gov’t. debt to back their note/dd issue.
Notes accepted for taxes.
Restricted branching making redemption harder.
Private note clearing – Suffolk System
Held specie reserve of members.
Different bank notes accepted.
Insulated banks from panics.

11. 1865–1912
The National Banking Act (1863)
The Gold Standard (1875).
Brief foray into bi-metalism.
Panics of 1873, 1893 and 1907
Federal Reserve Act of 1913

12. The National Banking System
The National Banking Act of 1863
Created nationally-chartered banks.
Created a national currency.
Taxed non-national bank notes.
Bought gov’t debt & issued notes.
The rise & fall of Jay Cooke.
State banks still benefit by holding reserves in nat’l notes.
Didn’t stop periodic panics.

13. The Federal Reserve System
“An engine of inflation.”
An addition layer means more money creation.
1914 to 1920, MS doubles
member banks DD 250%.
non-member banks DD 33%.
Reserve deposits on savings falls.
Shift from DD to TD.
Generally accepted that savings are “payable upon demand.”
Ben Strong & the Morgans.

14. Basics of Central Banking & Origins of U.S. Central Banking
Dr. D. Foster – ECO 473 – Money & Banking