ABSTRACT

Broad aspects are discussed of early twentieth century US money and banking. An extensive review of the US monetary system had led to the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and an agenda for a national currency and a monetary authority. Although Hoover (Secretary of Commerce) remained committed to free market economics, the early days of the Great Depression saw him conjuring interventions, which he thought would best serve the economy. Much that would later be formalised in Keynes’s General Theory had been addressed in pragmatic terms by ‘Americans of Hoover’s persuasion in the 1920s’. However, the suggestion that those individuals ‘could rightfully claim that they had anticipated most of Keynes’s conclusions’ is disputed. The proliferation of advice from various groups of economists reached new heights following a conference held at Chicago in January 1932. Here was the naissance of the Chicago Plan.