The Young Fed - The Banking Crises of the 1920s and the Making of a Lender of Last Resort

A new history of crisis responses in the central bank-s formative years. The long-standing description of the Federal Reserve as a -lender of last resort- refers to the central bank-s emergency liquidity provision for financial entities in periods of crisis. As Mark Carlson shows, this function was foundational to how the Fed was designed but has, at times, proven challenging to implement. The Young Fed examines the origins of the Federal Reserve-s emergency liquidity provision which, along with the setting of monetary policy, has become a critical responsibility. Focusing on the Fed-s response to the financial crises of the 1920s, Carlson documents the formative deliberations of central bank policymakers regarding how to assist banks experiencing distress; the lessons that were learned; and how those lessons shaped subsequent policies. Carlson depicts an early Fed that experimented with a variety of approaches to crises, ranging from bold spectacles featuring cash-filled armored cars