CHAPTER XVI

THE QUANTITY OF CREDIT: EXCESS OR DEFICIENCY

We have now examined separately the dealings of the Reserve system with a number of specific issues—international comity, stabilization of business activity, the control of speculation, and the encouragement of credit operations of certain types at the expense of other types. It remains to undertake a more difficult task; to appraise the combined result of the varying degrees of attention given to these more or less conflicting considerations.

CHAPTER XVII

THE QUALITY OF CREDIT: LIQUIDITY AND SAFETY

In Chapters XII and XIII it was shown that the Federal Reserve system has much less influence than was expected in the direction of a greater use of self-liquidating commercial paper as a method of credit extension by member banks. It was there noted that aside from the fostering of an acceptance market, the record of the Reserve system indicates no consistent interest in this issue.

APPENDIX A

STATISTICAL DATA

I. Reserve Bank Credit and Factors in Changes, Jan. 1, 1922 to June 1, 1932a (Monthly averages, in millions of dollars)

APPENDIX B

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING

The principal sources of information concerning Federal Reserve policy are the Federal Reserve Bulletin, the annual reports of the Federal Reserve Board and the various Federal Reserve Banks, and the following congressional hearings:

69 Cong. 1 sess., Stabilization, Hearings on H.R. 7895 before Committee on Banking and Currency, 1927.

70 Cong. 1 sess., Brokers’ Loans, Hearings on S. res. 113 before Committee on Banking and Currency, 1928.

Acceptances, 27-28, 101-04, Chap. XII

Anderson, B. M., 164, 172, 323

Balogh, T., 166

Banking policies, 4-5

Beckhart, B. H., 12, 294

Borrowing, interbank, tradition against, 32-33, 231-32

Brokers’ loans, 52, 151, 156-61, 282

Brown, H. G., 201

Burgess, W. R., 69, 126, 251

Cassel, G., 95, 162-66, 172, 200, 201

Catchings, W., 95

Central banking, theory of, 9-12, 30-31, 64-66, 190-96, 278

Chicago, Federal Reserve Bank of, 48

INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS SERIES

* The parentheses indicate that the volume itself does not carry the number since it was given subsequent to publication.

(1.) Germany’s Capacity to Pay.

By Harold G. Moulton and Constantine E. McGuire. 384 pp. 1923. $2.50.

(2.) Russian Debts and Russian Reconstruction.

By Leo Pasvolsky and Harold G. Moulton. 247 pp. 1924. $2.50.

(3.) Making the Tariff in the United States.

By Thomas Walker Page. 281 pp. 1924. $3.

ESSAYS ON

By
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton
FIRST BARON ACTON

Selected, and with an introduction by
Gertrude Himmelfarb

Preface by
Herman Finer

1949

Trade Edition: THE BEACON PRESS, Boston, Mass.
Text and Library Edition: THE FREE PRESS, Glencoe, Ill.