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Search results for: “currency exhibit”

  • Planning for the Centennial

    The Federal Reserve System was created on December 23, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. Before the new central bank could begin operations, the Reserve Bank Operating Committee, consisting of Treasury Secretary William McAdoo, Secretary of Agriculture David Houston, and Comptroller of the Currency John Skelton Williams, had the […]

  • Currency

    Today’s currency is “denominated,” or designated, in $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 notes. The $100 note is the largest currency denomination in circulation today. Historically, U.S. currency was printed in a variety of sizes, colors, and designs. To make it easier for the public to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit currency notes, […]

  • Showcase of Bills

    View entire American Currency Exhibit + References Colonial Currency, Massachusetts, 12 Pence, 1776, Paper Money of the United States Page 218 states the image is courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and clearly shows that the reverse side of this note shows a tree and the words Printed by John Gill (Reference […]

  • Crises Before and After the Creation of the Fed

    The Federal Reserve was created 100 years ago in response to the harsh recession associated with the Panic of 1907. Comparing that recession with the Great Recession of 2007–09 suggests the Fed can mitigate downturns to some extent. A statistical analysis suggests that if a central bank had lowered interest rates during 1907 panic the same way the Fed did during the 2008 financial crisis, gross domestic product would have contracted two percentage points less than it actually did.

  • A Look at China’s New Exchange Rate Regime

    On July 21, 2005, after more than a decade of strictly pegging the renminbi to the U.S. dollar at an exchange rate of 8.28, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC 2005a) announced a revaluation of the currency and a reform of the exchange rate regime. The revaluation puts the renminbi at 8.11 against the dollar, which amounts to an appreciation of 2.1%. Under the reform, the PBOC will incorporate a “reference basket” of currencies when choosing its target for the renminbi.

  • Dollarization as a Technology Import

    The debate over dollarization has arisen in several countries, but it is often at its most fervent in Argentina. In that country, a decade of currency board experience with dollar-peso convertibility has brought the economy as close to being dollarized as one can be without going all the way.

  • Fed Tapering News and Emerging Markets

    In 2013, the Federal Reserve publicly described conditions for scaling back and ultimately ending its highly accommodative monetary policy. Some emerging market countries subsequently experienced sharp reversals of capital inflows, resulting in sizable currency depreciation. But others did not. Variations in financial market reactions from one country to another appear to have been related to differences in economic conditions, which partly reflected a country’s policies before the Fed’s tapering comments.

  • Home Currency Issuance in Global Debt Markets

    Historically, businesses in most countries have not been able to sell bonds denominated in their home currencies to foreign investors. In recent decades this trend has been changing. Research shows that bonds denominated in currencies other than the major global currencies have increased, particularly following the global financial crisis. However, not all countries were affected equally. Countries that were able to take advantage of the temporary disruption and near-zero interest rates in global financial markets were the ones with a combination of low government debt and a history of stable inflation.

  • How Do Currency Crises Spread?

    The world has experienced three waves of speculative attacks on fixed exchange rate regimes recently: the European Monetary System (EMS) crisis of 1992-93, the Mexican meltdown and “Tequila Hangover” of 1994-95, and the “Asian Flu” of 1997-98. These currency crises generally involved countries in the same region. Why?

  • Banks and Foreign Exchange Exposure

    Have the big U.S. bank holding companies exposed themselves to excessive foreign exchange risk? Has their use of foreign exchange contracts contributed to their exposure? And what about the big Japanese banks — are they similarly exposed? In the wake of new international agreements to regulate the banks’ risks, these questions have become increasingly important.