It's a great good book and it definitely changed my perspective on the forces that brough the Federal Reserve into existence. It also clarifies some important points that get conflated by later libertarian critics of the Fed, like what exactly is the difference between the flexible money theories advanced by agrarian populists and the like and the expansionist money supply impulses of high monopoly capital.
It has been a very long time since I read Kolko—maybe ten years!—but I did like him a lot when I found him. The dynamics of trust-busting he lays out are very important, since the successor to the trust-form was the 'industrial combination' typical of the "Fordist" period he lays out. But he's also dealing with that dynamic of progressivism's latent conservatism, which is always cool.
Argues that a big and underrated reason for creation of federal reserve was so that we could make use of bankers acceptances which had not been allowed under national banking system, a development which allowed the dollar to become an international currency for the first time. Broz doesn't mention it (remains in basic macroecon-theoretical framework) but it is right after this that the Morgan-Rockefeller American International Corporation is trying to expand in China. Their headquarters were in 120 Broadway same as empire trust, and you know all about that.
This is also a good paper on the AIC. Talks about Hog Island too:
Can’t believe I never read that one. What do you think of Kolko?
It's a great good book and it definitely changed my perspective on the forces that brough the Federal Reserve into existence. It also clarifies some important points that get conflated by later libertarian critics of the Fed, like what exactly is the difference between the flexible money theories advanced by agrarian populists and the like and the expansionist money supply impulses of high monopoly capital.
It has been a very long time since I read Kolko—maybe ten years!—but I did like him a lot when I found him. The dynamics of trust-busting he lays out are very important, since the successor to the trust-form was the 'industrial combination' typical of the "Fordist" period he lays out. But he's also dealing with that dynamic of progressivism's latent conservatism, which is always cool.
HAVE you ever read this paper? "Origins of the Federal Reserve System: International Incentives and the Domestic Free-rider Problem"
https://annas-archive.org/md5/0a6c7ed7bc063e7324939d8bbd835dad
Argues that a big and underrated reason for creation of federal reserve was so that we could make use of bankers acceptances which had not been allowed under national banking system, a development which allowed the dollar to become an international currency for the first time. Broz doesn't mention it (remains in basic macroecon-theoretical framework) but it is right after this that the Morgan-Rockefeller American International Corporation is trying to expand in China. Their headquarters were in 120 Broadway same as empire trust, and you know all about that.
This is also a good paper on the AIC. Talks about Hog Island too:
https://annas-archive.org/md5/fd17e56211739ef65ee3a35e5d1466ed