The Birth of the Federal Reserve: Understanding the Dollar's Nature and Logic

The U.S. dollar is the foundation of the international financial system. As the institution that issues dollars, the Federal Reserve exerts influence everywhere, and every adjustment it makes has far-reaching effects on international finance. Yet before the Fed was established in 1913, the United States did not even have a unified currency, and its financial markets had no means of withstanding risk. Its economic might ranked only around the middle among the world's powers. As the Fed built the dollar system and improved U.S. financial policy, the United States gradually became the center of the international financial system. In reality, the process of unifying America's currency system was not accomplished overnight. The Federal Reserve system that manages the dollar was itself the product of compromise among many parties, and those compromises are the source of the dollar's volatility and complexity in today's international financial markets.

The Birth of the Federal Reserve recounts and analyzes in detail, in chronological order, the process by which the Fed was conceived and came into being. Its sweeping historical span, wealth of source material, and vivid accounts of what people said make it exceptionally rare and valuable among existing works on the dollar and the international financial system. Some scholars have even argued that only by studying the Fed's founding can we truly understand the nature and logic of the dollar. Open The Birth of the Federal Reserve to understand the nature and logic of the dollar, and learn how the U.S. financial system rose to prominence.

Lowenstein tells a gripping story, filled with vivid characters and period details. The stories he recounts from the eras of Taft, Roosevelt, and Wilson are still playing out in today's financial industry: the struggle between centralization and local government, the contest between politicians and bankers, and the conflict between merchants and farmers.