Beyond its original mission to 'furnish an elastic currency' as lender of last resort and manager of the payments system, the Federal Reserve has always been responsible (along with the Treasury) for regulating and supervising member banks. After World War II, Congress directed the Fed to pursue...

Before we can reform the financial system, we need to understand what banks do; or, better, what banks should do. This article will examine the later work of Hyman Minsky at the Levy Institute, on his project titled “Reconstituting the United States’ Financial Structure.” This led to a...