Wilson knew what he was doing, and was quite happy. He was by all accounts a reprehensible man, a racist filled with dreams of domination by elites. He is the father of all the bad things that Conservatives hate. If he wasn’t at the birth of it, he fed and clothed it.
History will judge Woodrow Wilson in a most cruel manner.
Well, one day, a hero will come along and undo it. It will be painful and ugly, but it will be the right thing to do.
Of course. He was a “progressive movement” leader.
If Wilson hated it, that would be the best extant argument in favor of the Fed.
It’s very simple.
The actual statements from Wilson, reflected his distrust of “a few men” if the “great wealth” that they had and that they could personally direct was in “private” hands.
He was apparently, as history shows, unopposed to circumstances, even “the wealth of the nation”, in the hands of “a few men”, if those men were government dictators appointed to serve and once appointed accountable to no one.
When fiat money did not reign, private bankers could not use a central bank’s cheap money to inflate their own ability to lend. When fiat money did not reign, private bankers took fewer stupid risks, because of the greater chance that they were risking the banks and their own capital.
What Wilson hated was that someone besides him had more to say about where “the nation’s wealth” (individual’s private wealth stored in private banks) ought be spent; someone besides him had more influence in the economy. He changed that - sort of - when he signed the law that established the Federal Reserve.
Read the wiki article on the crisis that started the political panic that led to creation of the Federal Reserve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907
You will notice types of unregulated activity in STOCK MARKET types of operations that (a)were shady, (b)needed some regulation and (c) could have been regulated without creating the Federal Reserve.
You will also notice that the “panic” over the situation was resolved by private banking activity, largely by the bank of J.P, Morgan, without any laws needed for that action and without, and before any Federal Reserve legislation.
Recall also, with the easy credit stimulated BY THE NEW FEDERAL RESERVE, the “roaring twenties” followed and instead of a minor and resolvable panic, or mere recession, the nation went into a depression.
Obviously, the cure for economic bubbles and their fall was not a cure; but the legislation did resolve Wilson’s complaint: that “private” hands had too much say in the economy.
All of Obama’s legislation has had the same affect. None of the targets are the targets the public sees. All of the targets are “the private hands” with too much say in some part of the economy - government can do better.
Wilson (and his wife who took over after his stroke) was the first truly odious President.
Charles Evans Hughes, maybe the best President we never had.