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Wow, this letter is a must read for any #bitcoin historian

Written by one of the most senior politicians pushing to create the Federal Reserve in 1913, Robert Owen.

In it he argues in favor of the Central Bank, and answers objections from one of the most powerful private bankers at the time, Joseph Talbert.

It gives some great insight into the reasons and rhetoric of the Pro-Fed movement at its creation. 🧵

In 1913, the creation of the Federal Reserve was a cause of heated political debate.

Robert Owen was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, and co-sponsored the legislation creating the Federal Reserve.

Joseph Talbert was the VP of National City Bank of New York (now Citibank).

Talbert objected to the creation of the Fed, on several grounds, including that the Fed members would be “mere politicians…political appointees”

Owen responded that this was a “slur”

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Owen argued that the Fed was better served to control the money supply than private banks, because it acts from:

“An altruistic standpoint in service of all our people” 😅

The people needed to be protected from “periodic sinister expansion and contraction of credits leading to ‘bull markets’ and ‘bear markets’…”