VII: The Reserve Board and the Stock Market: The Technique of Control
CHAPTER VII
THE RESERVE BOARD AND THE STOCK MARKET: THE TECHNIQUE OF CONTROL
As has been noted elsewhere, one of the primary purposes in the minds of many of those who participated in the formulation of the Federal Reserve Act was to discourage speculation, or at least to curtail the use of bank credit to finance stock exchange operations.
VIII: The Reserve Board And The Stock Market: The Objectives of Control
CHAPTER VIII
THE RESERVE BOARD AND THE STOCK MARKET: THE OBJECTIVES OF CONTROL
In order to appraise the policies of credit restriction and credit allocation pursued by the Federal Reserve system during 1928 and 1929, it is necessary to examine with care both the utterances of Reserve officials and the actual performance of the Reserve Banks.
IX: Reserve Credit and the Gold Supply
CHAPTER IX
RESERVE CREDIT AND THE GOLD SUPPLY
Up to this point we have made only passing reference to the international movements of gold in their bearing on the problems of the Reserve system. This is not because the gold flow has been an unimportant factor in the problems with which the Reserve system has to deal, but because its control has not, save in one or two instances, been an objective of policy.
X: Stabilization of Prices
CHAPTER X
STABILIZATION OF PRICES
So far we have said very little about the relationship between bank credit and commodity prices. In passing lightly over this phase of credit policy, we have followed the example of the Federal Reserve authorities themselves. The standard of Federal Reserve policy described in Chapter V treats price indexes as only one, and not necessarily the most important, set of data to be used in determining whether the “accommodation of credit and business” requires that credit be made easier, or tightened, or let alone.
XI: Efficacy of the Reserve System’s Technique
CHAPTER XI
EFFICACY OF THE RESERVE SYSTEM’S TECHNIQUE
An appraisal of the results which have been obtained from the attempts of the Reserve system to improve on the working of free competition in the money markets in the past ten years involves two kinds of issues; namely, the efficacy of the instruments of control which are at the disposal of the Reserve system, and the merits of the objectives at which the System has aimed.
Part III: The Minor Standards
XII: Liquidity of Commercial Bank Assets the Acceptance Market
CHAPTER XII
LIQUIDITY OF COMMERCIAL BANK ASSETS THE ACCEPTANCE MARKET
In Chapters XII and XIII we consider the policy of the System with respect to the types of credit instrument which Reserve Banks will either accept for rediscount or purchase in the open market, and the influence which the System has had on the composition of the portfolios of member banks. This subject breaks up into two parts, first the stimulation of the use of acceptances, and second the influence exerted on banks’ lending practices through the standards of eligibility of paper for rediscount.
XIII: Liquidity of Commercial Bank Assets Eligibility For Rediscount
CHAPTER XIII
LIQUIDITY OF COMMERCIAL BANK ASSETS ELIGIBILITY FOR REDISCOUNT
It was hoped by some critics of our pre-war banking organization that the Federal Reserve system would bring about a change in the standards of commercial bank lending.
XIV: The Federal Reserve System and the Treasury
CHAPTER XIV
THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM AND THE TREASURY
It is a generally accepted principle of modern central banking theory that central banks should be free from the control of the treasuries of the countries which they serve. It is the function of a central banking system to maintain a sound credit situation, and that objective is bound to conflict to a certain extent with the interest of the treasury in borrowing as cheaply, and at times as extensively, as it can.
XV: Regional Uniformity of Rates
CHAPTER XV
REGIONAL UNIFORMITY OF RATES
In this chapter we consider the policy of the Reserve system with regard to uniformity of rediscount rates between Federal Reserve Districts and the effects of Reserve policy on the regional structure of bank loan rates.
