U.S. Money vs. Corporation Currency, "Aldrich plan."

Author(s): Alfred Owen Crozier

Genre(s): Business & Economics

Narrators: MacKenzie Nikol Greenwood, TriciaG, Cori Samuel, Lucretia B., Kevin Leung, Chris Pyle, Joseph Tabler, Ke126, Melanie D. Young, Brian James, Elsie Selwyn

Number of Chapters: 29

Length: 16 hours and 24 minutes

Language: English

In 1908, the National Monetary Commission was established by Congress to study financial boom-and-bust cycles. Senator Nelson Aldrich (Republican-RI) was chair of the commission. He, in secret enclave with a group of bankers, drafted what was called The Aldrich Plan, which provided for a central "bank" that would hold funds individual banks could borrow in the case of a bank run, print currency, and act as the fiscal agent of the US government. However, the plan gave little power to the government and seemed to give almost absolute control of the country's currency to Wall Street financiers. This 1912 book outlines the dangers and supposed duplicity of The Aldrich Plan while it was being debated in Congress. (The plan was eventually defeated, but was used as a basis for the Federal Reserve Act, which was signed into law in 1913.) - Summary by TriciaG