Opinion
Opinion

Remaking the Fed: A Look Back at the Banking Act of 1935

Ninety years later, every Fed decision—from raising rates to curb inflation to cutting them in a downturn—still flows through the framework created in 1935.
Remaking the Fed: A Look Back at the Banking Act of 1935
Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs Banking Act of 1935. Public Domain
Bryan Cutsinger
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Commentary

This year marks the ninetieth anniversary of the Banking Act of 1935, the law that gave the Federal Reserve its current structure. Often overshadowed by the 1933 Act, which created deposit insurance and separated commercial from investment banking, the 1935 Act was just as important. By shifting power to Washington and redefining the Fed’s role, it built the framework for modern U.S. monetary policy.

Bryan Cutsinger
Bryan Cutsinger
Author
Bryan Cutsinger is an assistant professor of economics at the Norris-Vincent College of Business at Angelo State University, where he also serves as the assistant director of the Free Market Institute, and a research assistant professor at the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. Dr. Cutsinger’s research focuses on monetary history and political economy. His scholarly work has been published in leading economic journals, including Economics Letters, the European Review of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, Public Choice, and the Southern Economic Journal. His popular writing has appeared in the National Review, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Examiner. Dr. Cutsinger received his B.A. in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, where he was awarded the William P. Snavely Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies in Economics.
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