The 100 percent reserve plan August 12, 1938

摘要

The basic idea of the reform discussed above is not new. Since 1933 it has received a wide measure of academic and popular support. As an Administration measure it should experience little difficulty in getting by the House. Its chances in the Senate are more dubious. Although the occasion is perhaps not yet ripe, a basic reform of the nature herein presented appears, in the absence of a development of nationwide branch banking, inevitable. The diffusion of authority and responsibility for monetary control, the excessive sensitivity of a fractional reserve unit banking system, the excessive emphasis on liquidity at a time when the supply of liquid instruments is declining, and hence the failure to meet the changing needs of the community, and the consequent vulnerability to encroachment from other private and government agencies, all call for reforms of a basic nature.