With the world beguiled by the predicament of the Federal Reserve — whether to raise interest rates to fight inflation or lower them to ease the banking crisis — this is a moment to reprise why Congress created the central bank in the first place. Monetary sage Edwin Vieira, Jr., reminds us that the Fed was formed at the acme of the Progressive Era to rationalize finance and prevent banking crises. Just like the one we have today.

It was the Panic of 1907 — prompted by bank runs — that got the wheels spinning. The crisis, which sparked a global recession, was traced to “the handicap of an unscientific currency system,” as it was put by a founder of the Fed, Senator Glass. Never mind that under the gold standard, America had a stable currency that allowed it to reach industrial dominance while holding inflation to an average of 0.1 percent a year.