Menu
Idea

Federal Reserve

68
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Percentage sign written in clouds.

The Federal Reserve’s Little Secret

No one really knows how interest rates work—not the experts who study them, the investors who track them, or the officials who set them.
by Rogé Karma via The Atlantic on June 27, 2024
The Federal Reserve building under ominous black clouds.

The Federal Reserve Exists to Protect The Economic Status Quo

What is the Federal Reserve, and who put it in charge? Is there no other way to fight inflation? Just what the hell is going on here?
by Rob Larson via Current Affairs on May 15, 2023

At the Altar of the Fed

Celebrating the Federal Reserve as a cockpit for economic steering conceals the reality of where power lies today.
by Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via The Baffler on March 1, 2023
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker in front of a red arrow made of money pointing upwards.

The Messy True Story of the Last Time We Beat Inflation

The usual narrative about the "Volcker shock" leaves a lot out — and policymakers risk learning the wrong lessons.
by Alex Yablon via Vox on November 2, 2022
Image of Jerome Powell speaking at a conference.

Vectors of Inflation

Inflation hawks and inflation doves alike have learned the wrong lessons from the monetary policies of Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan.
by Radhika Desai via New Left Review on October 6, 2022
Stock traders watching Jerome Powell in conference on screens in the New York Stock Exchange.
partner

Seeing Americans as Consumers Threatens the Fairness of Our Economy

The Federal Reserve keeps increasing interest rates to try to bring prices down — but that may erase gains by non-White workers.
by Suzanne Kahn via Made By History on August 11, 2022
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building under construction.

“Supreme Court of Finance:” Democratic Legitimacy and the Development of the Federal Reserve System

What degree of legitimacy by voters does a public institution need in a democracy, and how much independence do experts in such an institution need to do their job?
by Armin Mattes via Starting Points on May 23, 2022
1912 political cartoon of the Aldrich Plan depicted as an octopus with tentacles on a bank, a factory, and a farm while spitting coins into the NYSC.

A Popular History of the Fed

On Populist programs and democratic central banking.
by Noam Maggor, Anton Jäger via Phenomenal World on October 1, 2020

The Incredible Lost History of How “Civil Rights Plus Full Employment Equals Freedom”

Why the policies of the Federal Reserve were a central focus for the civil rights movement.
by Jon Schwarz via The Intercept on July 17, 2017
Collage of shattered photos of Bear Stearns, George W. Bush, and law enforcement officers.

The Weekend That Shook the World

Lessons from Bear Stearns's collapse 17 years ago.
by Garrett M. Graff via Washington Post on April 1, 2025
A scale measuring the weight of gold flakes; with a quill, wax seals, lace, and jewelry.

Where Inflation Comes From

How we calculate inflation has always been a subject of debate. Small changes that might seem trivial lead to enormous changes in how well-off we think we are.
by Carola Conces Binder via Works In Progress on August 30, 2024
Milton Friedman.

Milton Friedman, the Prizefighter

The economist’s lifelong pugilism wasn’t in spite of his success—it may have been the key to it.
by Krithika Varagur via The New Yorker on January 12, 2024
Quarter teetering on the edge of a plank of wood

The 1970s Economic Theory That Needs to Die

Turns out you can tame inflation without triggering a recession. Will the Federal Reserve accept the good news?
by Rogé Karma via The Atlantic on October 20, 2023
A First Republic Bank sign.
partner

First Republic and Our Undemocratic Bailout System

Regulators with no democratic accountability keep bailing out banks and big depositors — at the cost of billions to taxpayers.
by Leon Wansleben via Made By History on May 3, 2023
The North American Trust Company building in Havana, Cuba.

The Imperial Fed

Colonial currencies and the pan-American origins of the dollar system.
by Nic Johnson via Phenomenal World on March 30, 2023
Ronald Reagan pointing at a graph explaining his tax policy.
partner

Inflation Opened the Door to American Neoliberalism

An excerpt from "The Hidden History of Neoliberalism."
by Thom Hartmann via HNN on September 11, 2022
Poster with women pledging to "pay not more than top legal prices" and "accept no rationed goods without giving up ration stamps"

Politics and the Price Level

On inflation, institutions, and the governance of the price level.
by Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via Phenomenal World on May 19, 2022
Reprint from the September 1966 issue of AFL-CIO American Federationist, Box 38, Folder 4, William Page Keeton Papers, Special Collections, Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin.

Controlled Prices

Before the rise of macroeconomics that accompanied World War II, price determination was a central problem of economic thought.
by Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via Phenomenal World on January 12, 2022
partner

What’s Missing in the Debate About Inflation

What we think we know about stifling inflation could be wrong.
by Yong Kwon via Made By History on November 16, 2021
Black and white photo of construction workers, high up in a building, looking down over industrialized NYC.

The History of the United States as the History of Capitalism

What gets lost when we view the American past as primarily a story about capitalism? 
by Steven Hahn via The Nation on November 1, 2021
"Law and Political Economy Project" logo.

Public Money without Public Goods

By documenting how public debt produced our present nightmare, Destin Jenkins allows us to dream about using public money to mend the ills of our era.
by David Stein via LPE Project on August 19, 2021
Cover page of the August 1957 issue of Nation's Business, featuring a clamp tightening in on dollar signs.

Preferred Shares

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said America faces an economic crisis fifty years in the making. But how can we name the long crisis, much less explain it?
by Tim Barker via Phenomenal World on June 24, 2021
Collage-style design of Milton Friedman and his work

The End of Friedmanomics

The famed economist’s theories were embraced by Beltway power brokers in both parties. Finally, a Democratic president is turning the page on a legacy of ruin.
by Zachary D. Carter via The New Republic on June 17, 2021
Auto workers on strike outside a General Motors plant in Detroit, September 1970.

When Americans Took to the Streets Over Inflation

In the 60s and 70s, spiraling prices for staples like meat and gasoline wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy, thanks to political and policy mistakes.
by Jon Hilsenrath via The Wall Street Journal on June 11, 2021
Robert Mundell receives the Nobel Prize in economics from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, in 1999.

Remembering the Father of Supply-Side Economics

Robert Mundell’s theories spawned decades of economic debate and still matter to the big ideas of today.
by Bruce Bartlett via The New Republic on April 7, 2021
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders
partner

Postal Banking is Making a Comeback. Here’s How to Ensure it Becomes a Reality.

Grass-roots pressure will be key to turning the idea into reality.
by Christopher W. Shaw via Made By History on July 21, 2020
Hands exchanging money.
partner

Will Covid-19 End the Use of Paper Money?

Our cash could spread disease — and there is precedent for changing it because of the pandemic.
by Joshua R. Greenberg via Made By History on May 15, 2020
Federal Reserve building.
partner

The Fed Could Undo Decades of Damage to Cities. Here’s How.

The bond market has fueled vast inequities between cities and suburbs — especially in smaller locales.
by Destin Jenkins via Made By History on April 27, 2020
Alan Greenspan holding his right hand up to speak under oath, with an eagle seal on the wall behind him.

When Alan Met Ayn: "Atlas Shrugged" and Our Tanked Economy

We owe at least part of the 2008 financial crisis to Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism.
by Maria Bustillos via Popula on October 11, 2019

Other People’s Blood

On Paul Volcker.
by Tim Barker via n+1 on February 26, 2019
View More
30 of
68

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History