Politics and Banking: Ideas, Public Policy, and the Creation of Financial Institutions. By Susan Hoffmann. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. 320p. $42.00

Extract

Offering a political scientist's view of the evolution of banking regulation in the United States, Susan Hoffmann approaches the creation of banks, savings and loans, and credit unions from the perspective of “public philosophies” about money, banking, and credit. She devotes a chapter to the early debates between Jefferson and Hamilton over the desirability of corporations over all, as well as banks specifically, then analyzes the First and Second Banks of the United States (BUS) with a chapter each. The development of vibrant state banking systems, followed by the imposition of a new national banking system in the Civil War, receives attention in its own chapter, as does the Federal Reserve Bank. She then concludes with a chapter each on the Savings and Loans (S&Ls) and building and loans, and the credit union system.