A History of Federal Reserve Policy, 1914—1946

Abstract

A History of Federal Reserve Policy, 1914—1946 The purpose of this paper is to review the history of action taken by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System with regard to credit policies, and when there was no definite policy stated, emphasis is placed on credit statistics as have been compiled by the Board and on any statement which was deemed significant. Since the quantity of reserve funds available to the commercial banks is of major concern, discussion of gold flows and government financing which affected the quantity of reserves is vital. However, the causes of gold flows and government finance are taken as facts and are not discussed for their merits or demerits.