William McChesney Martin became Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at the time of the March 1951 Treasury-Fed Accord and, in effect, created the modern Federal Reserve System. The authors recount some of the early events that shaped the modern Fed. They also relate...

Until March 1951, the Treasury compelled the Federal Reserve System to continue the pegging of government security prices that had begun in World War II. To break free from that obligation, the Fed would have to win a public confrontation with the President of the United States. Such an outcome...

Unrestrained power to create money makes possible the arbitrary seizure of property, either through an unlegislated transfer of wealth from the private to the public sector or through the capricious transfer of wealth between individuals. Money creation -- and by implication the seigniorage that...