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A Brief History of U.S.
Banking Updated 2/3/19 |
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Executive Summary
click to article 1791 First Bank of the United States was funded by taxes and supported by Northern merchants, but not Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Representative James Madison both of whom believed the South would not benefit. 1816 Second Bank of the United States, charted due to difficulty financing the War of 1812 and inflation, President Andrew Jackson opposed its financier president Nicholas Biddle, 20 year charter ran out.
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Panic of 1893 Our First Great Recession was caused by railroad overbuilding, shaky railroad financing causing bank failures and a run on the gold supply, and a policy of using both gold and silver metals as a peg for the U.S. Dollar value. 1901 Panic resulted when the first NY Stock Exchange crashed as financiers struggled over control of the of the Northern Pacific Railroad 1907 Bankers' Panic occurred when the New York Stock Exchange fell close to 50%, J. P. Morgan stopped runs on banks and trust companies, and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was passed.
1920-21 Post War Recession
Government agencies released their controls of businesses,
people raced to buy goods that had been
1929 The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that began sudden and total collapse of US stock market prices on October 29. Economist still can't agree on a cause. 1981-82 Recession was severe and occurred when the Federal Reserve to began lowering inflation by drastically decreasing the money supply just as bank deregulation allowed them to expand into risky ventures. 1980's and 1990's S&L Crisis saw 747 failures at a cost of $160 billion($125 billion was a government bailout) It was caused by real estate losses from the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and S&L deregulation problems.
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The First Bank of the United States
was
chartered for 20 years by the
United States
Congress
in 1791. Officially
proposed by
Alexander Hamilton,
Secretary of the
Treasury,
to the first session of the
First Congress
in 1790, the concept for the Bank had
both its support and origin in and among
Northern merchants and more than a few
New England
state governments.
"The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state for the protection of its rights and interests, and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce amongst individuals." Alexander Hamilton, December, 1790 report to George Washington[5] Neither Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson nor Representative James Madison had any particular interest in the chartering of the Bank of the United States or a proposed mint. They believed the South would not benefit from either a central mint or bank as these were mostly to the benefit of business interests in the commercial north. They didn't like Hamilton's desire to increase the excise tax on imported and domestic spirits to pay for the bank. Southern congressmen feared the tax burden would fall disproportionately heavily on the South, where, declared Jackson, 'hard liquor was a necessity of life'. After Hamilton left office in 1795, the new Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr. informed Congress that more money was needed. Selling the government's shares of stock in the Bank, or raising taxes was the choice and Congress quickly, above Hamilton objection, agreed. The bank's charter expired in 1811. First Bank of the United States
Red is editor's opinion Second Bank of the United States and ANDREW JACKSON fights the Bank of the U.S. Andrew Jackson and the Bankwar - from Tony D'Urso |
The
Second Bank of the United States was
chartered in 1816 resulted
because of the U.S. had
experienced severe
inflation
and had difficult financing the
War of 1812.
.
Subsequently, the credit and borrowing
status of the United States were at
their lowest levels since its founding.
The Bank of the U.S. was in no sense a national bank but rather a privately held banking corporation. The bank's relationship with the federal government that gave it access to substantial profits. Its role as the depository of the federal government's revenues made it a political target of banks chartered by the individual states. partisan politics highlighted the debate over the renewal of the charter. "The classic statement by Arthur Schlesinger was that the partisan politics during the Jacksonian period was grounded in class conflict. Viewed through the lens of party elite discourse, Schlesinger saw inter-party conflict as a clash between wealthy Whigs and working class Democrats "(Grynaviski) President Andrew Jackson strongly opposed the renewal of its charter, and built his platform for the election of 1832 around doing away with the Second Bank of the United States. Jackson's political target was y the very wealthy Nicholas Biddle, financier, politician, and president of the Bank of the United States. Apart from a general hostility to banking and the belief that specie (gold and/or silver) was the only true money, Jackson's reasons for opposing the renewal of the charter revolved around his belief that bestowing power and responsibility upon a single bank was the cause of inflation and other perceived evils.
The
Second Bank of the United States thrived
from the tax revenue that the federal
government regularly deposited. Jackson
struck at this vital source of funds in
1833 by instructing his Secretary of the
Treasury to deposit federal tax revenues
in state banks, soon nicknamed "pet
banks"
because of their loyalty to Jackson's
party. The Second Bank of the United
States was left with little money and,
in 1836, its charter expired and it
turned into an ordinary bank. Five years
later, the former Second Bank of the
United States went bankrupt.
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Panic of 1819 was the first major
financial crisis
in the United States. It occurred because
the Embargo Act and War of 1812
had caused
widespread foreclosures, bank failures,
unemployment, and a slump in agriculture
and manufacturing. Economists who adhere
to
Keynesian
economic theory
suggest that the Panic of 1819 was the
early Republic's first experience with
the boom-bust cycles common to all
modern economies.
Austrian
school
economists view the nationwide
recession
that resulted from the Panic of 1819 as
the first failure of
expansionary monetary
policy.
Proposed remedies included increase of
tariffs
(largely proposed by
Northern
manufacturing interests), reduction of
tariffs (largely proposed by
Southerners,
who believed free trade would stimulate
the economy and increase demand),
monetary expansion; i.e., restriction or
suspension of specie payment, rigid
enforcement of specie payment,
restriction of bank credit, direct
relief of debtors, public works
proposals, stricter enforcement of
anti-usury
laws.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1819
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Panic of 1837
was a financial crisis caused
speculative fever.
The bubble
burst in 1837 NY City when every bank
began to accept payment only in
specie
(gold
and
silver
coinage).
Economic
policy of both the previous
administration of Andrew Jackson and
recently elected current administration
of Martin Van Buren, were blamed as
well as bank excesses. Within
two months the losses from bank failures
in New York alone aggregated nearly $100
million. "Out of 850 banks in the United
States, 343 closed entirely, 62 failed
partially, and the system of State banks
received a shock from which it never
fully recovered." The publishing
industry was particularly hurt by the
ensuing depression. According to most
accounts, the economy did not recover
until 1843.
Most economists also agree that there
was a brief recovery from 1838 to 1839,
which then ended as the Bank of England
and Dutch creditors raised interest
rates.
However, economic historian
Peter Temin has argued that, when
corrected for deflation, the economy
actually grew after 1838. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1837 |
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Panic
of 1857
was brought on
mostly by the people's over-consumption
of goods from Europe to such an extent
that the Union's
Specie
was drained off, overbuilding by
competing railroads, and rampant land
speculation in the west.. The
recession ended a period of prosperity
and speculation that had followed the
Mexican-American War
(1846-1848) and the discovery of gold in
California. Gold poured into
the economy causing inflated.
After a large increase in state banks in
the early 1850's, by July 1856, state
banks began to lend far more money than
they could back up in
specie
even as deposits began to fall. The
panic began with a loss of confidence in
an Ohio bank, spread as railroads
failed, and fears that the US Federal
Government would be unable to pay
obligations in
specie.
More than 5,000 American businesses
failed, the stock market declined
by 66% compared with inflation, and
unemployment resulted in urban protests.
An October
bank holiday was declared in England and
New York to avert runs on those
institutions. The
Tariff Act of 1857
reduced the average tariff
rate to about 20%. Written by
Southerners and supported by most
economic interests nationwide, except
for sheep farmers and some Pennsylvania
iron companies, it had the effect of
removing the tariff issue as a major
source of North-South contention. The
South was much less hard-hit than other
regions, because of the stability of the
cotton
market. No recovery was evident in the
northern parts of the United States for
a year and a half, and the full impact
did not dissipate until the
American Civil War.
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Panic/Depression
of 1873-1879
began when the he
post civil war rail road boom ended and
the passage of the
Coinage Act of 1873, which
took the United off a bimetallic (gold
and silver) money standard. The
immediate effect was to depress silver
prices which hurt Western mining
interests, who labeled the Act "The
Crime of '73." It also reduced the
domestic
money supply raising interest rates
and hurting farmers and other large
debtors. The
resulting outcry created the fear of an
unstable money supply and investor
shunned bonds and other long-term
obligations. This lack of confidence in
bonds slowed the
railroad boom and exacerbated the
economic situation. For example, Jay
Cooke & Company, a major component
of the United States banking
establishment, cancelled plans for a
second transcontinental railroad as two
major funding sources disappeared.
In 1873 he was unable to market several
million dollars in
Northern Pacific
Railway
bonds and lost out on a $300 million
government loan as reports circulated
that his firm's credit was worthless.
The firm declared
bankruptcy
in September of 1873. The failure of the Jay Cooke bank, followed quickly by that of Henry Clews, set off a chain reaction of bank failures and temporarily closed the New York stock market on September 20 for 10 days. Factories began to lay off workers and the effects of the panic were quickly felt in New York, more slowly in Chicago, Virginia City, Nevada and San Francisco. Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt. A total of 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875. Unemployment reached 14% by 1876. Construction work halted, wages were cut, real estate values fell and corporate profits vanished. See Panic of 1873 |
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Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States because of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures. Compounding market overbuilding and a railroad bubble was a run on the gold supply and a policy of using both gold and silver metals as a peg for the US Dollar value.
In
1896 the Cross of Gold speech
Panic of 1901 resulted when the first NY Stock Exchange crashed as financiers struggled over control of the of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Panic of 1901 |
Panic of 1907, known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a financial crisis that occurred when the New York Stock Exchange fell close to 50% from its peak the previous year. There were runs on banks and trust companies. Many state and local banks and businesses entered into bankruptcy. New York City bank liquidity problems, loss of confidence among depositor, exacerbated by unregulated side bets at bucket shops caused the panic. The crisis was Triggered by the failed attempt in October 1907 to corner the market on stock of the United Copper Company, lending banks suffered runs that later spread to affiliated banks and trusts, leading a week later to the downfall of the Knickerbockers Trust Company—New York City's third-largest trust. The collapse of the Knickerbockers spread fear throughout the city's trusts as regional banks withdrew reserves from New York City banks. Panic extended across the nation as vast numbers of people withdrew deposits from their regional banks. Industrial production dropped further than after any bank run before then, while 1907 saw the second-highest volume of bankruptcies to that date. Production fell by 11%, imports by 26%, while unemployment rose to 8% from under 3%. Immigration dropped to 750,000 people in 1909, from 1.2 million two years earlier. The panic may have deepened if not for the intervention of financier J. P. Morgan, who pledged large sums of his own money, and convinced other New York bankers to do the same, to shore up the banking system. At the time, the United States did not have a central bank to inject liquidity back into the market. By November the financial contagion had largely ended, yet a further crisis emerged when a large brokerage firm borrowed heavily using the stock of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TC&I) as collateral. Collapse of TC&I's stock price was averted by an emergency takeover by Morgan's U.S. Steel Corporation—a move approved by anti-monopolist president Theodore Roosevelt. A commission investigation lead to the Federal Reserve System. See Panic_of_1907
Consider by some as a
mistakes in Federal Reserve policy
as a key factor in the crisis. In
response to post–World War I
inflation the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
began raising interest rates
sharply. In December 1919 the rate
was raised from 4.75% to 5%. A month
later it was raised to 6%, and in
June 1920 it was raised to 7% (the
highest interest rates of any period
except the 1970s and early 1980s).
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1929 Second Great Depression
was a severe worldwide economic
depression that began sudden and total
collapse of US stock market prices on
October 29. As for causes, historians
emphasize structural factors like
massive bank failures and the stock
market crash, while economists point to
monetary factors such as actions by the
US Federal Reserve that contracted the
money supply, and Britain's decision to
return to the Gold Standard at pre-World
War I parities (US$4.86:£1). Demand-driven causes include Keynesian economics, the breakdown of international trade, and Institutional Economists who point to under consumption, an over-investment economic bubble, malfeasance by bankers and industrialists, and incompetence by government officials. Monetarists believe what started as an ordinary recession was made worse by significant policy mistakes by monetary authorities (especially the Federal Reserve which shrink the money supply which greatly exacerbated the economic situation). Recovery began in the spring of 1933 with unemployment at 25%. However, the U.S. did not return to 1929 GNP for over a decade and still had an unemployment rate of about 15% in 1940, and entry into WWII brought unemployment under 10%The Great Depression, Friedman's View
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1981-82 recession
was severe and occurred when the
Federal Reserve to began lowering
inflation by drastically lowered the
money supply. In the wake of
the
1973 oil crisis
and the
1979 energy
crisis,
stagflation
began to afflict the economy of the
United States. Banks had a tough time as a recent wave of deregulation had phased out a number of restrictions on banks' financial practices, broadened their lending powers, and raised the deposit insurance limit from $40,000 to $100,000 (raising the problem of moral hazard). Banks rushed into real estate lending, speculative lending, and other ventures just as the economy soured. In 1982 Congress further deregulated banks as well as savings and loans letting banks offer money market accounts in an attempt to encourage deposit in-flows, removed additional statutory restrictions in real estate lending, and relaxed loans-to-one-borrower limits. This encouraged a rapid expansion in real estate lending at a time when the real estate market was collapsing, increased the unhealthy competition between banks and savings and loans, and encouraged overbuilding of branch banks. In 1984, Continental Illinois National Bank, the nation's seventh-largest bank failed and, federal regulators were willing to let the bank fail in order to reduce moral hazard and encourage safer practices but Congress and the press felt Continental Illinois was "too big to fail." and a $4.5 billion rescue package resulted. Unemployment gradually improved from 10.8% in Dec of 1982 to 7.2% in November of 1984 Inflation fell from 10.3% in 1981 to 3.2% in 1983. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_1980s_recession |
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1980s and 1990s S&L crisis
was the failure of 747 S&Ls aka
thrifts that cost about
$160
billion, of which about $125 billion was
paid for by a US government bailout.
Causes included the
Tax Reform Act of 1986
which
removed many real estate tax shelters
thus decreasing real estate values tied
to said shelters,
the
deregulation of
S&Ls
which gave them many of the capabilities
of banks, without the same regulations
as banks, the "moral
hazard" of insuring already troubled
institutions who in order to improve
liquidity, made unsound real
estate loans
on riskier assets, particularly land and
a "asset-liability
mismatch" at S & L's, who having made
long-term loans at a fixed rate, found
themselves borrowing at an ever
increasing rate and needing riskier
loans to cover these higher rates.
See Causes of the savings and loan crisis |
The Great Recession of 2007-2009 triggered by the collapse of a specific kind of derivative, the mortgage-backed security derivatives, which were protected from regulation by some federal regulators who believed the free market could manage itself. The Austrian School of economics blamed "easy" credit-based money caused an unsustainable economic boom. Others blame the extremely indebted US economy. The failure rates of subprime mortgages were the first symptom of a credit boom tuned to bust and of a real estate shock. These low-quality mortgages acted as an accelerant to the fire that spread through the entire financial system. The latter had become fragile as a result of several factors that are unique to this crisis: the transfer of assets from the balance sheets of banks to the markets, the creation of complex and opaque assets, the failure of ratings agencies to properly assess the risk of such assets, and the application of fair value accounting. To these novel factors, one must add the now standard failure of regulators and supervisors in spotting and correcting the emerging weaknesses. By October 2009, the unemployment rate had risen from 4.9% to 10.1%. In March 2009, Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarmzman said that up to 45% of global (stock market) wealth had been destroyed in little less than a year and a half. Home prices, which didn't move much between 1990 and 1997, dropped dramatically, have come back some, and are about twice their 1997(1990) value. /Late 2000's recession |
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The bankers that define the decades: Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase ( Euromoney )
Other Stuff
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How the U.S. Treasury avoided Chronic
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Deutsche Bank Said to Securitize Corporate Loans to Offload Risk (Bloomberg) Deutsche Bank AG, under pressure to bolster its balance sheet before resolving a U.S. mortgage probe, is working to securitize billions of dollars of corporate loans to offload risk, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The bank is structuring the transaction as a synthetic collateralized loan obligation, which means the firm would keep servicing loans while transferring risk to investors, said the person, who asked for anonymity because the deal is pending. Germany’s biggest bank has been doing similar deals for years to manage risks from corporate lending, the person said. |
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Proposed Solutions is Under
Constructions Send thoughts to
antonw@ix.netcom.com 1)
Insurable interest required for
financial activities like selling short.
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Ratio of total mortgages to total
value of U.S. housing stock Average ratio to GDP of unsecured and mortgage bank credit refinancing?
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