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Beginning of banking
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First Bank of the United States
The First Bank of the United States was originally called the Bank of the United Statesoperated from 1797-1811, on Third Street, midway between Chestnut and Walnut streets. Samuel Blodgett, Jr., merchant, author, publicist, promoter, architect, and "Superintendent of Buildings" for the new capital in Washington, DC, designed the building in 1794. 1 At its completion in 1797, the bank won as an architectural master piece. By today's standards the building remains a notable early example -
First Bank dies
Foreign ownership, constitutional questions (the Supreme Court had yet to address the issue), and a general suspicion of banking led the failure of the Bank's charter to be renewed by Congress. The Bank, along with its charter, died in 1811. -
Second Bank of the United States
The Second Bank of the U.S. was chartered in 1816 with the same responsibilities and powers as the First Bank. However, the Second Bank would not even enjoy the limited success of the First Bank. Although foreign ownership was not a problem because they only own 20%, the Second Bank was plagued with poor management and outright fraud -
Andrew Jackson shuts down the Second Bank
On this day in 1833, President Andrew Jackson announced that the government would no longer deposit federal funds in the Second Bank of the United States, the quasi-governmental national bank. He then used his executive power to close the account and to put the money in various state banks -
Andrew Jackson assassination attempt
A delusional Lawrence believed that the U.S. government owed him a large sum that Jackson was keeping from him.
Release of the funds, he thought, would allow him to take his rightful place as King Richard III of England.
Jackson, who was 67 at the time, repeatedly clubbed Lawrence with his walking cane.
During the ensuing scuffle, Lawrence took another pistol out of his pocket and pulled the trigger. But that gun also misfired. -
National Currency Act
By 1860 more than 10,000 different bank notes circulated throughout the country. Commerce suffered as a result. Counterfeiting was epidemic. Hundreds of banks failed. Throughout the country there was an insistent demand for a uniform national currency acceptable anywhere without risk. In response, Congress passed the National Currency Act in 1863. -
President Linclon signs revision
In 1864, President Lincoln signed a revision of that law, the National Bank Act. These laws established a new system of national banks and a new government agency headed by a Comptroller of the Currency. The Comptroller's job was to organize and supervise the new banking system through regulations and periodic examinations. -
Wall Street Panic Crisis
The crisis was especially severe. The Panic caused what was at that time the worst economic depression in the country's history. It appears to have begun with a market crash brought about by both a modest speculative bubble and the liquidity problem and reserve pyramiding just discussed. Centered on New York City, the scale of the crisis reached a proportion so great that banks across the country nearly suspended all withdrawals -
Bankers meet Secretly on Jerkyll Island
Over the course of a week, some of the nations most powerful bankers met secretly off the coast of Georgia, drafting a proposal for a private Central Banking system. Those in attendance included Nelson Aldrich, A.P. Andrew (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury), Paul Warburg (Kuhn, Loeb, & Co.), Frank Vanderlip (President of National City Bank of New York), Charles D. Norton (president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York), Henry Davidson (Senior Partner of JP Morgan Co.), and -
16 Amendment Ratified
Taxes ensured that citizens would cover the payment of debt due to the Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, which was also created in 1913.The 16th Amendment stated: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” -
Federal Reserve act passes
Two days before Christmas, while many members of Congress were away on vacation, the Federal Reserve Act was passed, creating the Central banking system we have today. It was based on the Aldrich plan drafted on Jekyll Island and gave private bankers supreme authority over the economy. They are now able to create money out of nothing, make decisions without government approval, and control the amount of money in circulation. -
JP Morgan and Co. profits from financing both sides of war
J.P. Morgan and Co. made a deal with the Bank of England to give them a monopoly on underwriting war bonds for the UK and France. They also invested in the suppliers of war equipment to Britain and France. -
Federal Reserve Bank opens
The opening of these banks marks a new era in the history of business and finance in this country. It is believed that they will put an end to the annual anxiety from which the country has suffered for the past generation about insufficient money and credit to move the crops each year, and will give such stability to the banking business that the extreme fluctuations in interest rates and available credits which have characterized banking in the past will be destroyed permanently. -
The Roaring 20's
From 1921 to 1929 the Federal Reserve increased the money supply by $28 billion, almost a 62% increase over an eight-year period.This artificially created another “boom”. -
The Great Banking Crisis
The 1929 banking crisis that launched the Great Depression was caused by stressed banks whose highly leveraged retail borrowers were unable to meet margin calls on their stock market losses, resulting in bank runs from panicky depositors unprotected by government insurance. -
Federal Reserve contracts money
In 1929, the Federal Reserve began to pull money out of circulation as loans were paid back. They created a “bust” which was inevitable after issuing so much credit in the years before. The Federal Reserve’s actions triggered the banking crisis, which led to the Great Depression. -
Stock market crash
The most devastating stock market crash in history. Billions of dollars in value were consolidated into the private banker’s hands at the expense of everyone else. -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
The banking crisis was the first order of business for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The day after taking office, on March 5, 1933, he declared a bank holiday, closing all the country's banks until they could be examined and either be allowed to reopen or be subjected to orderly liquidation. The bulk of this work fell to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. -
US paper money
Paer money was first issued with a "In God We Trust" -
Kennedy issued an Executive Order
Kennedy Issued an Executive Order (11110) that Authorized the US Treasury to Issue Silver Certificates, Threatening the Federal Reserve’s Monopoly on Money
