ABSTRACT
Members of Congress and many other Americans made wide-ranging suggestions to reform the Federal Reserve System between the stock market crash of October 1929 and the passage of the Banking Act of 1935. Probably the most radical proposals would have nationalized the banking system through government ownership of reserve banks or individual local banks. Others recommended establishment of a National Monetary Authority that would assume the duties of the reserve system and Treasury Department. 1 Although Congress made many changes in the reserve act between 1930 and August 1935, banks remained privately owned, and the reserve system survived the Great Depression. The system’s policy environment changed little, although the reserve board was better equipped after 1935 to counteract swings in the business cycle.
