Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward полностью

Then he got an idea. Early in the spring, he started scatteringcorn along the edge of the pond. The ducks liked the corn and,since it was always there, they soon gave up dipping and foragingfor food of their own. After a while, they became used to the farmerand began to trust him. They could see he was their benefactor andthey now walked close to him with no sense of fear. Life was soeasy, they forgot how to fly. But that was unimportant, becausethey were now so fat they couldn't have gotten off the water even ifthey had tried.

Fall came, and the ducks stayed. Winter came, and the pondfroze. The farmer built a shelter to keep them warm. The duckswere happy because they didn't have to fly. And the farmer wasespecially happy because, each week all winter long, he had adelicious duck dinner.

That is the story of America's Great Depression of the 1930s.

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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

CONSOLIDATION OF POWER

When the Federal Reserve Act was submitted to Congress,many of its most important features were written in vague language. Some details were omitted entirely. That was a tactical moveto avoid debate over fine points and to allow flexibility for futureinterpretation. The goal was to get the bill passed and perfect it later.

Since then, the Act has been amended 195 times, expanding thepower and scope of the System to the point where, today, it wouldbe almost unrecognizable to the Congressmen and Senators whovoted for it.

In 1913, public distaste for concentration of financial power inthe hands of a few Wall Street banks helped to fuel the fire forpassage of the Federal Reserve Act. To make it appear that the newSystem would put an end to the New York "money trust," as it wascalled, the public was told that the Federal Reserve would notrepresent any one group or one region. Instead, it would have itspower diffused over twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, andnone would be able to dominate. As Galbraith pointed out,however, the regional design was "admirable for serving localpride and architectural ambition and for lulling the suspicions ofthe agrarians."1 But that was not what the planners had in mind forthe long haul.

In the beginning, the regional branches took their autonomyseriously, and that led to conflict with members of the nationalboard. The Board of Governors was composed of political appointees representing diverse segments of the economy. They wereoutclassed by the heads of the regional branches of the System whowere bankers with bankers' experience.