Was the Fed a Bad Idea?

Wake Forest University will host a two-day conference that considers the relevance and necessity of the Federal Reserve. The program, organized by the Economics Department at Wake Forest University and sponsored by the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism, will be held on Feb. 11-12.

The Fed's centennial is approaching and we anticipate much oratory, books, conferences, and papers singing its praises. Perhaps this praise is warranted; perhaps it is not. The purpose of this conference is to examine whether or not such praise is truly warranted. Scholars have been invited to present papers that support and/or contradict the conference title’s assertion by carefully examining the historical record. This conference is being organized by the Economics Department at Wake Forest University and is sponsored by the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism.

Click here to register for the conference. Students do not need to register.

Tentative Agenda:

Friday February 11, 2010

11:00 a.m.
J. Daniel Hammond, Wake Forest University
“Milton Friedman and the Federal Reserve: Then and Now”

2:00 p.m.
John A. Allison, Wake Forest University, BB&T Chairman and CEO (retired)
“The Practical Impact of the Federal Reserve on Decision Making in Large Financial Institutions”

4:00 p.m.
John A. James, University of Virginia
David F. Weiman, Barnard College
“Panics and the Disruption of Private Payments Networks: The United States in 1893 and 1907”

7:00 p.m.
Thomas Sargent, New York University
Keynote Address:  “Drawing Lines in U.S. Monetary and Fiscal History”

Saturday, February 12, 2010

8:30 a.m.
Jeffry Miron, Harvard University 
“Has Economic Performance Improved Since the Founding of the Fed?”

10:30 a.m.
George Selgin, University of Georgia
Lawrence H. White, George Mason University 
“Has the Fed Been a Failure?”

1:30 p.m.
Richard Sylla, New York University 
“Bank Failures and Output”

3:30 p.m.
John H. Wood, Wake Forest University
“A Comparison of the Independent Treasury and the Federal Reserve System as Congress’s Agents for ‘The Regulation of the Currency’”