The financial panic that led to the start of the Federal Reserve
The financial panic that led to the start of the Federal Reserve
- September 8, 2025
- Gary Richardson, economics, History, Sept. 8, 2025
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Before the early 20th century, the U.S. banking system was a patchwork of private banks called trust companies. No central authority existed to coordinate them. … “A lot of the Founding Fathers really feared giving either the biggest bankers in the U.S. or politicians in Washington control over interest rates,” says Gary Richardson, a professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, who served as the Federal Reserve’s historian from 2012 to 2016.
For the full story, please visit https://www.history.com/articles/federal-reserve-bank-origins-history.
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