The Fed’s Century of Power Started With a Fateful Meeting
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On Dec. 26, 1912, Representative Carter Glass visited New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson at his home in Princeton. The snows were piled high, and Wilson, the president-elect, was in bed with a cold.
Although he had canceled other appointments, Wilson insisted on seeing Glass -- who, he knew, was bringing a legislative proposal for a new system of coordinating bank reserves. Then as now, the U.S. had recently experienced a financial panic, and many argued that the monetary system was largely to blame.