Libertarian_Guard
9th December 2013, 07:36 PM
On 23 December 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act creating the US central bank which this month celebrates its 100th birthday.
Created in the wake of the financial panics of the early 20th Century and in the teeth of deep suspicion of centralised power, it is now perhaps the most powerful financial institution on the planet.
The BBC was granted rare access to the Federal Reserve's inner sanctum - just a stone's throw from the White House.
It is here that a small group of unelected economists gather to take decisions which have profound implications for citizens in the US and beyond.
The financial crisis of 2008 probably did more than anything to make the Fed, its powers and its chairman, Ben Bernanke, familiar to people around the world, but it was just the latest episode in 100 years of crisis management.
The early 20th Century was scarred by a succession of financial panics, the most acute of which followed the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.
That prompted a group of leading politicians and financiers to meet in secret under the cover of a duck-hunting trip on the remote Jekyll Island in Georgia in 1910 to sketch out a central banking system.
This was actually the country's third attempt at a national central bank.
The first was created by Alexander Hamilton under George Washington in 1791, despite fierce opposition from Thomas Jefferson. It lasted only 20 years when its charter was allowed to expire.
The second attempt was put out of business by Andrew Jackson in 1836.
More BS at ….http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25218789
Created in the wake of the financial panics of the early 20th Century and in the teeth of deep suspicion of centralised power, it is now perhaps the most powerful financial institution on the planet.
The BBC was granted rare access to the Federal Reserve's inner sanctum - just a stone's throw from the White House.
It is here that a small group of unelected economists gather to take decisions which have profound implications for citizens in the US and beyond.
The financial crisis of 2008 probably did more than anything to make the Fed, its powers and its chairman, Ben Bernanke, familiar to people around the world, but it was just the latest episode in 100 years of crisis management.
The early 20th Century was scarred by a succession of financial panics, the most acute of which followed the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.
That prompted a group of leading politicians and financiers to meet in secret under the cover of a duck-hunting trip on the remote Jekyll Island in Georgia in 1910 to sketch out a central banking system.
This was actually the country's third attempt at a national central bank.
The first was created by Alexander Hamilton under George Washington in 1791, despite fierce opposition from Thomas Jefferson. It lasted only 20 years when its charter was allowed to expire.
The second attempt was put out of business by Andrew Jackson in 1836.
More BS at ….http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25218789