This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. December 2003
  5. Meltzer's History of the Federal Reserve

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

Meltzer's History of the Federal Reserve

  • David Laidler
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 41, no. 4, December 2003
(pp. 1256–1271)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

This review argues that Allan Meltzer's account of the Federal Reserve between 1913 and 1951 complements Friedman and Schwartz's in their Monetary History. Meltzer emphasizes policy making within the system, rather than the evolution of the money supply and its effects on the economy. He stresses the uncertainty of the Fed's independence before the 1951 Accord, and the effects of economic ideas, notably the real bills and Riefler-Burgess doctrines, on policy. Many virtues in the book are noted, and one weakness, namely a failure to explain why inadequate ideas became dominant within the Fed when sounder alternatives were available in contemporary monetary thought.

Citation

Laidler, David. 2003. "Meltzer's History of the Federal Reserve." Journal of Economic Literature, 41 (4): 1256–1271. DOI: 10.1257/002205103771800031

JEL Classification

  • E58 Central Banks and Their Policies
  • N12 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
  • N11 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913