I love a good podcast recommendation. In that spirit I attached a link to an interview with Lev Menand on the Hidden Forces podcast. The broader focus of the interview is the rise of shadow banking and the risks of a financial crisis but there is a section (starting around 21:20 minute mark) where Lev and Demetri discuss the origin of central banking and the development of the Fed in the context of the overall development of the US banking system.
The discussion ranges over
- The creation of the Bank of England (23:20)
- The point at which central banks transitioned from being simple payment banks to credit creation (24:10) institutions with monetary policy responsibilities
- The problems the US founders faced creating a nation state without its own money (25:30)
- Outsourcing money creation in the US to private banks via public/private partnership model (26:50)
- The problems of a fragmented national market for money with high transmission costs (27:40)
- The origin of the Federal Reserve in 1913 (31.50) and the evolution of banking in the US that preceded its creation which helps explain the organisational form it took
… and a lot more including a discussion of the rise of shadow banking in the Euromarket.
The topic is irredeemingly nerdy I know and it will not tell you much new if you are already engaged with the history of banking but it does offer a pretty good overview if you are interested but not up for reading multiple books.
Tony – From the Outside
From the outside 