#TBT: Woodrow Wilson Establishes America's Banking System

     Woodrow Wilson had the most successful first two years of just about any presidency. He laid out his New Freedom domestic agenda and achieved it in its entirety. The Clayton Antitrust Act and Federal Trade Commission Act? Done. The Revenue Act? Done. The Adamson Act? Done. Another achievement: the Federal Reserve Act, the focus of today's anniversary. Establishing the eight-hour workday, enacting new antitrust legislation, pummeling the tariff to establish an income tax on the rich, granting women the vote, guiding the United States through World War I, providing aid to farmers, proposing the League of Nations, and acquiring the U.S. Virgin Islands while granting autonomy to Cuba and the Philippines would have been enough to earn Wilson a top spot among presidents, but he also established America's modern banking system.

     Introduced by Carter Glass on August 29th, 1913, passed by the House on September 18th, and passed by the Senate on December 18th before being amended, the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law on December 23rd, 1913, 90 years ago today. The act, as the name implies, established the Federal Reserve System, a system of banks run by boards across the United States that controls the country's money supply, provides loans, and, overall, ensures financial stability. America suffered economic depressions in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1884, 1893, and 1907, to name a few, driven by the lack of a strong central bank. This act helped fix that problem, and, since then, only five major recessions have occurred: 1929, 1937, 1979, 2008, and 2020. 

     The Federal Reserve Act was amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, which essentially increased and decreased, respectively, regulations on the bank while leaving the system intact.