Why didn't the United States establish a central bank until after the panic of 1907?

Monetary historians conventionally trace the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to the turbulence of the Panic of 1907. But why did the successful movement for creating a U.S. central bank follow the Panic of 1907 and not any earlier National Banking Era panic? The 1907 panic displayed a less severe output contraction than other national banking era panics, and national bank deposit and loan data suggest only a limited impairment to intermediation through these institutions. ; We argue that the Panic of 1907 was substantially different from earlier National Banking Era panics. The 1907 financial crisis focused on New York City trust companies, a relatively unregulated intermediary outside the control of the New York Clearinghouse. Yet trusts comprised a large proportion of New York City intermediary assets in 1907. Prior panics struck primarily national banks that were within the influence of the clearinghouses, and the private clearinghouses provided liquidity to member institutions that were perceived as solvent. Absent timely information on trusts, the New York Clearinghouse offered insufficient liquidity to the trust companies to quell the panic quickly. ; In the aftermath of the 1907 panic, New York bankers saw heightened danger to the financial system arising from "riskier" institutions outside of their clearinghouse and beyond their direct influence. The reform proposals from New York banking interests advocated universal membership in a centralized reserve system to overcome the risk of financial panic arising from the observed isolation of some intermediaries. Serious consideration of federal legislation to reform the banking system took place because New York bankers changed in their attitude toward a system of reserves beyond their control.Banks and banking - History ; Banks and banking, Central

Liquidity creation without a lender of last resort: clearing house loan certificates in the Banking Panic of 1907

We employ a new data set comprised of disaggregate figures on clearing house loan certificate issues in New York City to document how the dominant national banks were crucial providers of temporary liquidity during the Panic of 1907. Clearing house loan certificates were essentially “bridge loans” arranged between clearing house members. They enabled and were issued in anticipation of gold imports, which took a few weeks to arrive. The large, New York City national banks acted as private liquidity providers by requesting (and the New York Clearing House issuing) a volume of clearing house loan certificates beyond their own immediate liquidity needs, in accord with their role as central reserve city banks in the national banking system.Financial crises - United States ; Lenders of last resort

Liquidity creation without a lender of last resort: clearinghouse loan certificates in the Banking Panic of 1907

We employ a new data set comprised of disaggregate figures on clearinghouse loan certificate issues in New York City to document how the dominant national banks were crucial providers of temporary liquidity during the Panic of 1907. Clearinghouse loan certificates were essentially "bridge loans" arranged between clearinghouse members that enabled and were issued in anticipation of monetary gold imports, which took a few weeks to arrive. The large New York City national banks acted as private liquidity providers by requesting (and the New York clearinghouse issuing) a volume of clearinghouse loan certificates beyond their own immediate liquidity needs. While loan certificates were a temporary solution at best to the liquidity crisis in 1907, their issuance allowed the New York banks to serve their role as central reserve city banks in the national banking system.

Lessons from the panic of 1907

Depressions ; Banks and banking - History

The call loan market in the U.S. financial system prior to the Federal Reserve System

The call loan market in New York City played a central role in funding the expansion of economic growth and capital investment in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Changes in the identity of the intermediaries providing those funds help explain why the movement for the establishment of a central bank in the United States took hold only after the panic of 1907. The growing significance of nonclearinghouse creditors to the call money market diluted the relative financial influence of the New York City bankers and compromised the apparent “coinsurance” arrangement between brokers and New York Clearinghouse lenders that prevailed during the late nineteenth century.

New York and the politics of central banks, 1781 to the Federal Reserve Act

The paper provides a brief history of central banking institutions in the United States. Specifically, the authors highlight the role of New York banking interests in the legislations affecting the creation or expiration of central banking institutions. In our previous research we have detected that New York City banking entities usually exert substantial influence on legislation, greater than their large proportion of United States’ banking resources. The authors describe how this influence affected the success or failure of central banking movements in the United States, and the authors use this evidence to support their arguments regarding the influence of New York City bankers on the legislative efforts that culminated in the creation of the Federal Reserve System. The paper argues that successful central banking movements in the United States owed much to the influence of New York City banking interests.

Non-destructive estimation of lichen biomass

Ground lichens constitute a vital part of reindeer winter diet, and non-destructive estimation of lichen biomass is therefore crucial for providing objective data for the management of lichen resources. The aim of this study is to compare precisions of different methods of estimating lichen biomass from ground cover and thallus heights of the four most important lichen species: Cladonia arbuscula, C. rangiferina, C. stellaris, and Cetraria islandica. The methods were validated against actual lichen biomass within 50 cm x 50 cm plots. Different methods gave remarkably similar results, except when cover estimation was based on presence/absence data with a strict criterion of 100% lichen cover. Average thallus heights within the plot explained the variation in lichen biomass as well as lichen volume (estimated from cover and average heights). Relationships between biomass and volume or height were also very similar for all four lichen species, and separation into species thus do not seem necessary for practical purposes.Abstract in Swedish / Sammandrag:Icke-destruktiv skattning av lavbiomassa Marklavar utgör en kritisk del av renars vinterföda, och det blir därmed väsentligt att kunna skatta lavbiomassa på ett icke-destruktivt sätt för att kunna förvalta lavresursen. Syftet med denna studie är att jämföra precisionen hos olika metoder för att skatta lavbiomassa baserat på volym- och bålhöjdsmätningar för de fyra viktigaste arterna: Cladonia arbuscula, C. rangiferina, C. stellaris, and Cetraria islandica. Metoderna validerades mot lavbiomassa mätt i 50 cm x 50 cm provytor. Olika metoder gav anmärkningsvärt lika resultat, förutom när täckning skattades med förekomstdata med ett strikt kriterium av 100% lavförekomst. Medelhöjd på lavbålarna i provytan förklarade lika mycket av variationen i lavbiomassa som lavvolym (baserat på täckning och medelhöjd). Förhållandet mellan biomassa och volym eller bålhöjd var också mycket lika mellan arterna vilket medför att det, för praktiska ändamål, inte är nödvändigt att separera arterna vid skattningar av total biomassa

Can management buffer pasture loss and fragmentation for Sami reindeer herding in Sweden?

Today, climate change and competing land use practices are threatening rangelands around the world and the pastoral societies that rely on them. Reindeer husbandry practised by the indigenous Sami people is an example. In Sweden, approximately 70% of the most productive lichen pastures (important in winter) has been lost, either completely or because of a reduction in forage quality, as a result of competing land use (primarily commercial forestry). The remaining pastures are small and fragmented. Yet, the number of reindeer in Sweden shows no general decline. We investigated the strategies that have allowed reindeer herders to sustain their traditional livelihood despite a substantial loss of pastures and thus natural winter forage for their reindeer. Changes in harvest strategy and herd structure may partially explain the observed dynamics, and have increased herd productivity and income, but were not primarily adopted to counteract forage loss. The introduction of supplementary feeding, modern machinery, and equipment has assisted the herders to a certain extent. However, supplementary feeding and technology are expensive. In spite of governmental support and optimized herd productivity and income, increasing costs provide low economic return. We suggest that the increased economical and psychosocial costs caused by forage and pasture losses may have strong effects on the long-term sustainability of reindeer husbandry in Sweden

High and Far: Biases in the Location of Protected Areas

BACKGROUND: About an eighth of the earth's land surface is in protected areas (hereafter "PAs"), most created during the 20(th) century. Natural landscapes are critical for species persistence and PAs can play a major role in conservation and in climate policy. Such contributions may be harder than expected to implement if new PAs are constrained to the same kinds of locations that PAs currently occupy. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Quantitatively extending the perception that PAs occupy "rock and ice", we show that across 147 nations PA networks are biased towards places that are unlikely to face land conversion pressures even in the absence of protection. We test each country's PA network for bias in elevation, slope, distances to roads and cities, and suitability for agriculture. Further, within each country's set of PAs, we also ask if the level of protection is biased in these ways. We find that the significant majority of national PA networks are biased to higher elevations, steeper slopes and greater distances to roads and cities. Also, within a country, PAs with higher protection status are more biased than are the PAs with lower protection statuses. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In sum, PAs are biased towards where they can least prevent land conversion (even if they offer perfect protection). These globally comprehensive results extend findings from nation-level analyses. They imply that siting rules such as the Convention on Biological Diversity's 2010 Target [to protect 10% of all ecoregions] might raise PA impacts if applied at the country level. In light of the potential for global carbon-based payments for avoided deforestation or REDD, these results suggest that attention to threat could improve outcomes from the creation and management of PAs

Parallell Delaunay-triangulering i Java og CUDA

I de senere år har hardwareprodusenter, i stedet for å øke klokkehastigheten, duplisert kjerner på prosessorer. Konsekvensen er at prosessorer stadig får flere kjerner. Skjermkortleverandører har også sett potensialet av økt regnekraft, og i det siste har de lansert utviklingspakker som gjør det mulig å bruke skjermkort til mer enn å bare tegne opp grafikk på skjerm. Denne oppgaven ser hovedsakelig på Delaunay-triangulering i planet. Oppgaven baserer seg på en eldre implementasjon, hvor algoritmene har blitt trukket ut og reimplementert til å passe for objektorienterte språk. Implementasjonen har så blitt optimalisert og parallellisert i flere varianter. Til slutt gjøres en radikal endring i algoritmen for å prøve å tilpasse Delaunay-triangulering for NVIDIAs CUDA-plattform. Endringen er basert på en oppdagelse som ble gjort av forfatteren under arbeidet med denne oppgaven, og den er beskrevet i detalj i en artikkel som følger med som vedlegg