An Adventure in Constructive Finance

Download An Adventure in Constructive Finance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ayer Company Pub
ISBN 13 : 9780405069604
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (696 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis An Adventure in Constructive Finance by : Carter Glass

Download or read book An Adventure in Constructive Finance written by Carter Glass and published by Ayer Company Pub. This book was released on 1975-01-01 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

An Adventure in Constructive Finance

Download An Adventure in Constructive Finance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (319 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis An Adventure in Constructive Finance by : Carter Glass

Download or read book An Adventure in Constructive Finance written by Carter Glass and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

America's Bank

Download America's Bank PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101614129
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis America's Bank by : Roger Lowenstein

Download or read book America's Bank written by Roger Lowenstein and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tour de force of historical reportage, America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established. For nearly a century, America, alone among developed nations, refused to consider any central or organizing agency in its financial system. Americans’ mistrust of big government and of big banks—a legacy of the country’s Jeffersonian, small-government traditions—was so widespread that modernizing reform was deemed impossible. Each bank was left to stand on its own, with no central reserve or lender of last resort. The real-world consequences of this chaotic and provincial system were frequent financial panics, bank runs, money shortages, and depressions. By the first decade of the twentieth century, it had become plain that the outmoded banking system was ill equipped to finance America’s burgeoning industry. But political will for reform was lacking. It took an economic meltdown, a high-level tour of Europe, and—improbably—a conspiratorial effort by vilified captains of Wall Street to overcome popular resistance. Finally, in 1913, Congress conceived a federalist and quintessentially American solution to the conflict that had divided bankers, farmers, populists, and ordinary Americans, and enacted the landmark Federal Reserve Act. Roger Lowenstein—acclaimed financial journalist and bestselling author of When Genius Failed and The End of Wall Street—tells the drama-laden story of how America created the Federal Reserve, thereby taking its first steps onto the world stage as a global financial power. America’s Bank showcases Lowenstein at his very finest: illuminating complex financial and political issues with striking clarity, infusing the debates of our past with all the gripping immediacy of today, and painting unforgettable portraits of Gilded Age bankers, presidents, and politicians. Lowenstein focuses on the four men at the heart of the struggle to create the Federal Reserve. These were Paul Warburg, a refined, German-born financier, recently relocated to New York, who was horrified by the primitive condition of America’s finances; Rhode Island’s Nelson W. Aldrich, the reigning power broker in the U.S. Senate and an archetypal Gilded Age legislator; Carter Glass, the ambitious, if then little-known, Virginia congressman who chaired the House Banking Committee at a crucial moment of political transition; and President Woodrow Wilson, the academician-turned-progressive-politician who forced Glass to reconcile his deep-seated differences with bankers and accept the principle (anathema to southern Democrats) of federal control. Weaving together a raucous era in American politics with a storied financial crisis and intrigue at the highest levels of Washington and Wall Street, Lowenstein brings the beginnings of one of the country’s most crucial institutions to vivid and unforgettable life. Readers of this gripping historical narrative will wonder whether they’re reading about one hundred years ago or the still-seething conflicts that mark our discussions of banking and politics today.

The Power "to Coin" Money

Download The Power

Author :
Publisher : M.E. Sharpe
ISBN 13 : 9780873327954
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (279 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Power "to Coin" Money by : Thomas Frederick Wilson

Download or read book The Power "to Coin" Money written by Thomas Frederick Wilson and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 1992 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the history from colonial times to the present of the monetary powers exercised by the Congress under the Constitution. It follows the evolution of the American banking and monetary system from the perspective of specific provisions in the Constitution that authorize the government to coin money and regulate its value. The author critically examines how far the development of the contemporary money and banking system has pushed beyond the narrow powers spelled out in the Constitution. He shows how changes in congressional legislation, Supreme Court decisions on precedent-setting cases, and the evolution of central banking powers within the Federal Reserve System have expanded the scope of the federal government's monetary powers. Yet, the author views this history within the context of private limits to the authority of Congress and the Congress's distrust of lodging the central bank within the Executive branch, preferring instead to respect an independent central banking tradition. The Hamiltonian tradition, he concludes, still offers the best institutional arrangement to confront unstable markets and destabilizing political influence.

Woodrow Wilson

Download Woodrow Wilson PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307277909
Total Pages : 738 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Woodrow Wilson by : John Milton Cooper, Jr.

Download or read book Woodrow Wilson written by John Milton Cooper, Jr. and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-04-05 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major biography of America’s twenty-eighth president in nearly two decades, from one of America’s foremost Woodrow Wilson scholars. A Democrat who reclaimed the White House after sixteen years of Republican administrations, Wilson was a transformative president—he helped create the regulatory bodies and legislation that prefigured FDR’s New Deal and would prove central to governance through the early twenty-first century, including the Federal Reserve system and the Clayton Antitrust Act; he guided the nation through World War I; and, although his advocacy in favor of joining the League of Nations proved unsuccessful, he nonetheless established a new way of thinking about international relations that would carry America into the United Nations era. Yet Wilson also steadfastly resisted progress for civil rights, while his attorney general launched an aggressive attack on civil liberties. Even as he reminds us of the foundational scope of Wilson’s domestic policy achievements, John Milton Cooper, Jr., reshapes our understanding of the man himself: his Wilson is warm and gracious—not at all the dour puritan of popular imagination. As the president of Princeton, his encounters with the often rancorous battles of academe prepared him for state and national politics. Just two years after he was elected governor of New Jersey, Wilson, now a leader in the progressive movement, won the Democratic presidential nomination and went on to defeat Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in one of the twentieth century’s most memorable presidential elections. Ever the professor, Wilson relied on the strength of his intellectual convictions and the power of reason to win over the American people. John Milton Cooper, Jr., gives us a vigorous, lasting record of Wilson’s life and achievements. This is a long overdue, revelatory portrait of one of our most important presidents—particularly resonant now, as another president seeks to change the way government relates to the people and regulates the economy.

Biographical Dictionary of the United States Secretaries of the Treasury, 1789-1995

Download Biographical Dictionary of the United States Secretaries of the Treasury, 1789-1995 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1567508138
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (675 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Biographical Dictionary of the United States Secretaries of the Treasury, 1789-1995 by : Bernard S. Katz

Download or read book Biographical Dictionary of the United States Secretaries of the Treasury, 1789-1995 written by Bernard S. Katz and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1996-12-09 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describing the men who have led the U.S. Treasury since its creation in 1789, this book profiles those who have held the cabinet position of Secretary of the Treasury from Alexander Hamilton to Robert Rubin. Each profile provides the reader with an understanding of the man, the problems he faced, and the contributions he made. While focusing on the economic policy problems of an era and the solutions the secretary offered, each profile also includes a vignette illustrating the secretary's personality and background. Some represent backgrounds of money and power, others backgrounds of simplicity and anonymity. Some came to the office with greater stature than when they left, while others made a significant mark on our nation's financial history. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, besides collecting and dispersing the public revenue, made the Treasury a prime agency for promoting the country's economic development and fiscal soundness. Since the Great Depression, the Treasury's regulatory functions have been articulated and elaborated. Working with the President's cabinet and with maximum statistical data, the secretaries have sought to analyze the economic outlook and to coordinate official actions, including policies to maintain a strong and stable U.S. dollar. The essays in this book, written by 24 authorities, illustrate how the Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies with general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The biographies illustrate continuing themes of fiscal management as our nation evolved over 200 stormy years of history. They also provide an intimate look at 69 individual secretaries, with stories and facts about their leadership, ideas, style, and administrative prowess, together with their personality and family lives.

A European Central Bank?

Download A European Central Bank? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521376235
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (762 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A European Central Bank? by : Marcello De Cecco

Download or read book A European Central Bank? written by Marcello De Cecco and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1989-05-25 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers in this volume analyse the issues of having a single European currency.

Wilson, Volume II

Download Wilson, Volume II PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 140087582X
Total Pages : 524 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Wilson, Volume II by : Arthur S. Link

Download or read book Wilson, Volume II written by Arthur S. Link and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Woodrow Wilson was swept into the White House on the basis of a program characterized by the words "The New Freedom." The exciting story of his attempts to put this program into effect, in spite of a sometimes recalcitrant congress, makes up the body of this book, the second volume in Professor Link's monumental biography of Wilson. Covering the first two years of his presidency and concentrating on domestic issues, Professor Link shows Wilson meeting the complex demands of his new office, selecting his cabinet, paying political debts, organizing congressional support, seeking the approval of the public. Wilson was deeply committed to the reform program, and in the fight to put it into effect the personalities of the Wilson circle and its opponents appear vividly. The picture of Wilson as an astute politician adapting and shaping the forces around him is especially revealing in view of the popular stereotype of Wilson as an impractical, uncompromising idealist. The book also describes the Mexican intervention and the beginnings of the New Freedom diplomacy in Latin American affairs, taking the reader up to the brink of World War I. It is a worthy sequel to the famous first volume, Wilson: The Road to the White House, and will leave its readers eager for the next volume on the problems of neutrality. Originally published in 1956. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Birth of a Market

Download Birth of a Market PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262016370
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Birth of a Market by : Kenneth D. Garbade

Download or read book Birth of a Market written by Kenneth D. Garbade and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evolution of "a marvel of modern finance," the market for U.S. Treasury securities, from 1917 to 1939. The market for U.S. Treasury securities is a marvel of modern finance. In 2009 the Treasury auctioned $8.2 trillion of new securities, ranging from 4-day bills to 30-year bonds, in 283 offerings on 171 different days. By contrast, in the decade before World War I, there was only about $1 billion of interest-bearing Treasury debt outstanding, spread out over just six issues. New offerings were rare, and the debt was narrowly held, most of it owned by national banks. In Birth of a Market, Kenneth Garbade traces the development of the Treasury market from a financial backwater in the years before World War I to a multibillion dollar market on the eve of World War II. Garbade focuses on Treasury debt management policies, describing the origins of several pillars of modern Treasury practice, including "regular and predictable" auction offerings and the integration of debt and cash management. He recounts the actions of Secretaries of the Treasury, from William McAdoo in the Wilson administration to Henry Morgenthau in the Roosevelt administration, and their responses to economic conditions. Garbade's account covers the Treasury market in the two decades before World War I, how the Treasury financed the Great War, how it managed the postwar refinancing and paydowns, and how it financed the chronic deficits of the Great Depression. He concludes with an examination of aspects of modern Treasury debt management that grew out of developments from 1917 to 1939.

The Federal Reserve

Download The Federal Reserve PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022682165X
Total Pages : 707 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Federal Reserve by : Robert L. Hetzel

Download or read book The Federal Reserve written by Robert L. Hetzel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-01-11 with total page 707 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new and critical history of one of America's most important institutions In The Federal Reserve System: A New History, Robert Hetzel draws on a 43-year career as an economist in the central bank to trace the influence of the Fed on the American economy. Hetzel compares period in which the Fed stabilized the economy and period in which it destabilized the the economy. He draws lessons about what monetary rule is stabilizing. Recast through this lens and enriched with archival materials, Hetzel's sweeping history offers new understanding of the bank's watershed moments since 1913. They include critical accounts of the Great Depression, the Great Inflation, and the Great Recession, all of which were avoidable. The Federal Reserve System: A New History arrives as a critical history for a critical moment. It promises to recast our understanding of the central bank in its second century"--

News Notes of California Libraries

Download News Notes of California Libraries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1156 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis News Notes of California Libraries by : California State Library

Download or read book News Notes of California Libraries written by California State Library and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 1156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vols. for 1971- include annual reports and statistical summaries.

Dividends of Development

Download Dividends of Development PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191092533
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Dividends of Development by : Mary A. O'Sullivan

Download or read book Dividends of Development written by Mary A. O'Sullivan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-20 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unprecedented importance of finance in our societies, as well as its central role in provoking economic crises, has generated an enormous interest in understanding the historical origins and evolution of modern financial systems. Today the U.S. economy is seen as an archetype of a capitalist system in which securities markets play a central role. Moreover, these markets have had a high profile in some of the most dramatic moments in U.S. history, often in the context of crises. Dividends of Development: Securities Markets in the History of U.S. Capitalism, 1865-1922, explains how U.S. securities markets became central to the institutional fabric of U.S. capitalism. After the Civil War, these markets had a narrowly circumscribed relationship to the country's real economy, being largely dominated by railroad securities. Moreover, their role in the U.S. financial system was of limited significance given the relatively modest resources that financial institutions committed to investment in, and lending on, corporate securities. That situation was to undergo fundamental change from the Civil War through the end of World War 1 but the development of U.S. securities markets did not occur as a result of a smooth, or even, linear process. Instead, the book shows that the transformation of U.S. securities markets occurred through a process that was volatile and time-consuming, unscripted by powerful actors, and driven, above all else, by the dramatic but unstable character of the nation's economic development. These claims about the trajectory, the operation, and the underlying dynamics of the development of U.S. securities markets are brought together in a novel synthesis that portrays the historical evolution of securities markets in the United States as the "dividends" of the country's distinctive trajectory of economic development.

The Federal Reserve System

Download The Federal Reserve System PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786487615
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Federal Reserve System by : Carl H. Moore

Download or read book The Federal Reserve System written by Carl H. Moore and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-10-17 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 100 years since its inception, the United States struggled through a variety of financial problems, crises, and would-be solutions to the problems of currency, credit and financial stability. On December 23, 1913, Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Federal Reserve Act, creating an institution patterned after the central banks of Europe yet still uniquely American. This is a complete revelation of the workings of the system--the early history, organization, leadership, evolution and development, and major figures. Appendices include the original Federal Act (not readily available elsewhere) and numerous reference tables covering 1914-1989.

A History of the Federal Reserve

Download A History of the Federal Reserve PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226519988
Total Pages : 815 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A History of the Federal Reserve by : Allan H. Meltzer

Download or read book A History of the Federal Reserve written by Allan H. Meltzer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 815 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Allan H. Meltzer's monumental history of the Federal Reserve System tells the story of one of America's most influential but least understood public institutions. This first volume covers the period from the Federal Reserve's founding in 1913 through the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord of 1951, which marked the beginning of a larger and greatly changed institution. To understand why the Federal Reserve acted as it did at key points in its history, Meltzer draws on meeting minutes, correspondence, and other internal documents (many made public only during the 1970s) to trace the reasoning behind its policy decisions. He explains, for instance, why the Federal Reserve remained passive throughout most of the economic decline that led to the Great Depression, and how the Board's actions helped to produce the deep recession of 1937 and 1938. He also highlights the impact on the institution of individuals such as Benjamin Strong, governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the 1920s, who played a key role in the adoption of a more active monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. Meltzer also examines the influence the Federal Reserve has had on international affairs, from attempts to build a new international financial system in the 1920s to the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 that established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and the failure of the London Economic Conference of 1933. Written by one of the world's leading economists, this magisterial biography of the Federal Reserve and the people who helped shape it will interest economists, central bankers, historians, political scientists, policymakers, and anyone seeking a deep understanding of the institution that controls America's purse strings. "It was 'an unprecedented orgy of extravagance, a mania for speculation, overextended business in nearly all lines and in every section of the country.' An Alan Greenspan rumination about the irrational exuberance of the late 1990s? Try the 1920 annual report of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. . . . To understand why the Fed acted as it did—at these critical moments and many others—would require years of study, poring over letters, the minutes of meetings and internal Fed documents. Such a task would naturally deter most scholars of economic history but not, thank goodness, Allan Meltzer."—Wall Street Journal "A seminal work that anyone interested in the inner workings of the U. S. central bank should read. A work that scholars will mine for years to come."—John M. Berry, Washington Post "An exceptionally clear story about why, as the ideas that actually informed policy evolved, things sometimes went well and sometimes went badly. . . . One can only hope that we do not have to wait too long for the second installment."—David Laidler, Journal of Economic Literature "A thorough narrative history of a high order. Meltzer's analysis is persuasive and acute. His work will stand for a generation as the benchmark history of the world's most powerful economic institution. It is an impressive, even awe-inspiring achievement."—Sir Howard Davies, Times Higher Education Supplement

The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve

Download The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691178380
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve by : Peter Conti-Brown

Download or read book The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve written by Peter Conti-Brown and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth look at the history, leadership, and structure of the Federal Reserve Bank The independence of the Federal Reserve is considered a cornerstone of its identity, crucial for keeping monetary policy decisions free of electoral politics. But do we really understand what is meant by "Federal Reserve independence"? Using scores of examples from the Fed's rich history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve shows that much common wisdom about the nation's central bank is inaccurate. Legal scholar and financial historian Peter Conti-Brown provides an in-depth look at the Fed's place in government, its internal governance structure, and its relationships to such individuals and groups as the president, Congress, economists, and bankers. Exploring how the Fed regulates the global economy and handles its own internal politics, and how the law does—and does not—define the Fed's power, Conti-Brown captures and clarifies the central bank's defining complexities. He examines the foundations of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which established a system of central banks, and the ways that subsequent generations have redefined the organization. Challenging the notion that the Fed Chair controls the organization as an all-powerful technocrat, he explains how institutions and individuals—within and outside of government—shape Fed policy. Conti-Brown demonstrates that the evolving mission of the Fed—including systemic risk regulation, wider bank supervision, and as a guardian against inflation and deflation—requires a reevaluation of the very way the nation's central bank is structured. Investigating how the Fed influences and is influenced by ideologies, personalities, law, and history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve offers a uniquely clear and timely picture of one of the most important institutions in the United States and the world.

Moshenskyi S. From Global Imbalances to the "Great Depression" (1914-1939)

Download Moshenskyi S. From Global Imbalances to the

Author :
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1499087365
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Moshenskyi S. From Global Imbalances to the "Great Depression" (1914-1939) by : Sergey Z. Moshenskiy

Download or read book Moshenskyi S. From Global Imbalances to the "Great Depression" (1914-1939) written by Sergey Z. Moshenskiy and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is devoted to a difficult period in the history of the securities market between the First and the Second World Wars. It was then when collapse of the global financial system began. Financial relationships set in the late XIX – early XX centuries around British Empire and London, the main financial centre of the “first globalization” era, were breaking. This long and painful process, complicated by the collapse of the gold standard system, created global imbalances of the 1920s, associated with huge war debts and overflowing gold from Europe to the United States. Those imbalances spawned not only the “Great Crash” in 1929, but also the “Great Depression” of the 1930s, in many ways resembling the “Great Recession” at the beginning of the XXI century.

Broken Bargain

Download Broken Bargain PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300223323
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Broken Bargain by : Kathleen Day

Download or read book Broken Bargain written by Kathleen Day and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of major financial crises--and how taxpayers have been left with the bill In the 1930s, battered and humbled by the Great Depression, the U.S. financial sector struck a grand bargain with the federal government. Bankers gained a safety net in exchange for certain curbs on their freedom: transparency rules, record-keeping and antifraud measures, and fiduciary responsibilities. Despite subsequent periodic changes in these regulations, the underlying bargain played a major role in preserving the stability of the financial markets as well as the larger economy. By the free-market era of the 1980s and 90s, however, Wall Street argued that rules embodied in New Deal-era regulations to protect consumers and ultimately taxpayers were no longer needed--and government agreed. This engaging history documents the country's financial crises, focusing on those of the 1920s, the 1980s, and the 2000s, and reveals how the two more recent crises arose from the neglect of this fundamental bargain, and how taxpayers have been left with the bill.