Monetary-Policy

Fed Vice Chair Clarida Trades Millions Before Rate Cuts

| Importance: 8/10

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida rotated between $1-5 million from Pimco bond funds into stock funds on February 27, 2020, just one day before Fed Chair Powell’s emergency statement about coronavirus risks. Clarida sold multiple ETFs during the market’s COVID-19 downturn and …

Richard Clarida Federal Reserve Board Jerome Powell Elizabeth Warren federal-reserve trading-scandal conflict-of-interest richard-clarida insider-trading +2 more
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William Simon Establishes Petrodollar Recycling System

| Importance: 9/10

US Treasury Secretary William Simon negotiated a pivotal agreement with Saudi Arabia that established the petrodollar recycling system, fundamentally reshaping global monetary dynamics. Simon convinced Saudi Arabia to sell oil exclusively in US dollars and invest oil revenues in US Treasury bonds, …

William Simon Ahmed Zaki Yamani Richard Nixon King Faisal Henry Kissinger +2 more petrodollar-system monetary-policy oil-politics financial-system international-finance
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Banking Act of 1935 Restructures Federal Reserve, Reduces Wall Street Influence Over Monetary Policy

| Importance: 8/10

President Roosevelt signs the Banking Act of 1935 on August 23, 1935, fundamentally restructuring the Federal Reserve System to centralize monetary policy authority in a reformed Board of Governors in Washington rather than the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, which had been dominated by …

Franklin D. Roosevelt Marriner Eccles Carter Glass U.S. Congress Federal Reserve Board +1 more financial-regulation new-deal federal-reserve banking-reform monetary-policy +1 more
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Gold Reserve Act Nationalizes Gold Holdings and Devalues Dollar Over Wall Street Opposition

| Importance: 8/10

President Roosevelt signs the Gold Reserve Act on January 30, 1934, nationalizing all gold holdings in the United States, transferring ownership of Federal Reserve gold to the U.S. Treasury, and authorizing the President to set the gold value of the dollar between 50 and 60 percent of its previous …

Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. Congress Federal Reserve Wall Street banking industry +1 more new-deal monetary-policy gold-standard financial-regulation corporate-resistance
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Bland-Allison Act Overrides Presidential Veto, Restores Silver Coinage

| Importance: 7/10

Congress overrides President Rutherford B. Hayes’s veto on February 28, 1878, to enact the Bland-Allison Act, requiring the U.S. Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million of silver bullion each month and mint it into legal tender silver dollars. The Act represents a partial …

Richard P. Bland William B. Allison Rutherford B. Hayes U.S. Congress monetary-policy corporate-influence financial-system-capture gilded-age
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