If stable and efficient banks are such a good idea, why are they so rare? -- The game of bank bargains -- Tools of conquest and survival : why states need banks -- Privileges with burdens : war, empire, and the monopoly structure of English banking -- Banks and democracy : Britain in the...

Commercial banks are among the oldest and most familiar financial institutions. When they work well, we hardly notice; when they do not, we rail against them. What are the historical forces that have shaped the modern banking system? In Unsettled Account, Richard Grossman takes the first truly...

The bankers' panic of 1907 -- The Emergency Currency Act -- Financial heterodoxy gains ground -- Central banking and agricultural credit -- From armistice to depression -- The 1930s banking crisis -- The Emergency Banking act -- The Banking Act of 1933 -- Government programs and mutual aid --...

Cover -- Half title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Dedication -- Preface -- Introduction. Politics and the Markets They Made -- Part I. Lawmakers and Regulators -- Chapter 1. Deregulation Before Deregulation: John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and James Saxon -- Chapter 2. Supermarket Banks:...