A vast literature on the effects of sterilized intervention by the monetary authorities in the foreign exchange markets concludes that intervention systematically moves the spot exchange rate only if it is publicly announced, coordinated across countries, and consistent with the underlying...

This paper examines the historical precedents of US exchange market intervention. Before 1934 we describe operations by the Second Bank of the United States, the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. We then examine the operations of the Exchange Stabilization Fund, created in 1934 as a Treasury...