Trillion$ Exhibit Library Guide: Home

              

The Federal Reserve Official Webiste

 

The 12 Branches of  the Federal Reserve Bank

Federal Reserve Bank Boston

Federal Reserve Bank New York

Federal Reserve Bank Philadelphia

Federal Reserve Bank Cleveland

Federal Reserve Bank Richmond

Federal Reserve Bank Atlanta
 

   

Federal Reserve Bank Chicago

Federal Reserve Bank St. Louis

Federal Reserve Bank Minneapolis
 

Federal Reserve Bank Kansas City

Federal Reserve Bank Dallas

Federal Reserve Bank San Francisco

 

Trillion$: The Awesome Power of the Federal Reserve, is an exhibition in the Doheny Treasure Room commemorating the institution's centennial. Over the past one hundred years, the Fed has played an outsized role in the American economy. Rare books, photographs, currency, and other objects highlight the history of an organization that continues to draw approval, arouse controversy, and shape discourse-public and political-across ideologies and spheres of influence. The United States Federal Reserve—one of the nation’s most important yet misunderstood institutions—works to provide security and trust in the domestic American economy and international financial markets. While attempts had been made since the 18th century to establish a central bank in the U.S., popular fear over the concentration of financial power derailed such efforts. When a series of bank panics convulsed the country in the 1890s and early 1900s, New York financier J.P. Morgan led a private rescue of the unstable financial system. The lack of government response boosted support for the creation of a central bank. Congress created the Federal Reserve in 1913. Today the Fed has clear mandates: to maximize employment, ensure stable prices, and keep long-term interest rates at a moderate level. Over the past one hundred years—with the exceptions of the Great Depression and high inflation of the 1970s—the Fed has largely achieved those goals.  Criticism of the Fed often focuses on the discreet ways in which it operates and the famously opaque language of its chairmen. However, at times it has interceded in very public ways, as seen most recently in the “great recession” of 2007–2008. As the lender of last resort, it injected trillions of dollars into the economy. The results of that intervention continue to draw approval, arouse controversy, and shape discourse—public and political—across ideologies and spheres of influence.