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Journal Article
Resolving the national bank note paradox
During the 1882_1914 period, U.S. national banks could issue circulating notes backed by specified government securities. Earlier attempts to explain yields on those securities by costs of note issue discovered a paradox: yields were too high. We point out two previously ignored sources of costs: idle notes and note redemptions that were highly variable, thereby exacerbating the problem of managing reserves. We present data on idle notes and estimate, from partial data on redemptions, the uncertainty due to redemptions. We also present a semiannual time series of an upper bound on the average ...
Journal Article
Open and operating: providing liquidity to avoid a crisis
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 triggered a staggering increase in demand for U.S. dollars all over the world, a demand that threatened to disrupt the American payments system but was met swiftly and successfully by the Federal Reserve. Earlier in the nation?s history, the system didn?t respond so well to severe shocks. This Commentary describes financial crises that occurred during one period in which the country had no central bank.
Journal Article
Who is that guy on the $10 bill?
Alexander Hamilton is the least known and most misunderstood of our nation's founders. His contributions include creating a monetary standard, establishing our banking system, and ensuring the young nation's creditworthiness. This Economic Commentary explains how much of our financial strength we owe to Hamilton.
Report
Interest rates under the U.S. national banking system
According to previous studies, the demand-liability feature of national bank notes did not present a problem for note-issuing banks because the nonbank public treated notes and other currency as perfect substitutes. However, that view, when combined with nonbindingness of the collateral restriction against note issue, itself an implication of the fact that some eligible collateral was not used for that purpose, implies that the safe short-term interest rate is pegged at the tax rate on note circulation. Since evidence on short-term interest rates is inconsistent with such a peg, that view ...
Working Paper
Inflation and financial market performance: what have we learned in the last ten years?
The last decade has witnessed a great deal of theoretical and empirical research on the relationships between inflation, financial market performance, and economic growth. This paper provides a survey of that literature and presents new cross-country empirical results on this topic. We find that inflation is negatively associated with banking industry size, real returns on financial assets, and bank profitability. We also discover a positive relationship between asset return volatility and inflation.
Working Paper
The National Banking System: empirical observations
This paper provides a summary of the main features of U.S. financial and banking data during the period of the National Banking System (1863?1914). The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the stylized facts associated with the era, with an emphasis on those impinging on national bank behavior. The paper takes a detailed look at key elements of national bank balance sheets over time, over the seasons, and during panic periods. The interesting and puzzling patterns of interest rate movements during the era also are examined. The paper introduces a new set of disaggregated data on ...
Journal Article
Fear and loathing of central banks in America
The Federal Reserve System is America?s uneasy compromise between our dislike of concentrated financial power and our desire to promote efficiency in our national payments system. In fact, the Federal Reserve is the nation?s third attempt to establish a large national bank?what we now call a central bank?that is in a unique position to influence a nation?s money and credit. This Commentary retells the story of the rise and fall of the two earlier national banks, the Banks of the United States.
Working Paper
National bank notes and silver certificates
From 1883 to 1892, the circulation of national bank notes in the United States fell nearly 50 percent. Previous studies have attributed this to supply-side factors that led to a decline in the profitability of note issue during this period. This paper provides an alternative explanation. The decline in note issue was, in large part, demand-driven. The presence of a competing currency with superior features caused the public to substitute away from national bank notes.
Journal Article
Stamp scrip: money people paid to use
Substitutes for government-issued money are produced and used from time to time even in countries like the United States. Understanding why people turn to these substitutes and to what degree they are successful?or not?can teach us a lot about the elements essential to a well-functioning currency.