Has the Fed Been a Failure?

84 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2013

See all articles by George Selgin

George Selgin

The Cato Institute; University of Georgia

William D. Lastrapes

University of Georgia - C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business - Department of Economics

Lawrence H. White

George Mason University - Department of Economics; George Mason University - Mercatus Center

Date Written: December 15, 2010

Abstract

As the one-hundredth anniversary of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act approaches, we assess whether the nation‘s experiment with the Federal Reserve has been a success or a failure. Drawing on a wide range of recent empirical research, we find the following: (1) The Fed‘s full history (1914 to present) has been characterized by more rather than fewer symptoms of monetary and macroeconomic instability than the decades leading to the Fed‘s establishment. (2) While the Fed‘s performance has undoubtedly improved since World War II, even its postwar performance has not clearly surpassed that of its undoubtedly flawed predecessor, the National Banking system, before World War I. (3) Some proposed alternative arrangements might plausibly do better than the Fed as presently constituted. We conclude that the need for a systematic exploration of alternatives to the established monetary system is as pressing today as it was a century ago.

Keywords: U.S. financial policy, American economic policy, Federal Reserve Bank, Federal Reserve System, 2008 financial crisis, 2008 economic crisis, United States monetary policy, federal reserve, inflation, expansionary monetary policy

JEL Classification: E30, E42, E52, E58

Suggested Citation

Selgin, George and Lastrapes, William D. and White, Lawrence H., Has the Fed Been a Failure? (December 15, 2010). Cato Institute Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2230511 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2230511

George Selgin (Contact Author)

The Cato Institute ( email )

1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.cato.org/centers/center-monetary-financial-alternatives

University of Georgia ( email )

Athens, GA 30602-6254
United States
706-542-2734 (Phone)
706-542-3376 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.terry.uga.edu/directory/economics/george-a-selgin.html

William D. Lastrapes

University of Georgia - C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

Terry College of Business
Athens, GA 30602-6254
United States
706-542-3569 (Phone)
706-542-3376 (Fax)

Lawrence H. White

George Mason University - Department of Economics ( email )

4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
United States

George Mason University - Mercatus Center ( email )

3434 Washington Blvd., 4th Floor
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

HOME PAGE: http://ppe.mercatus.org/scholars/lawrence-h-white

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