Preface xv Introduction xv Chapter 1 Free Banking and Private Money 1 The Bank of the United States 5 State Debt Defaults 10 The Age of Andrew Jackson 14 The Panic of 1837 19 The Gold Rush 23 Chapter 2 Lincoln Funds Civil War with Inflation 27 The Lincoln Legacy 29 Financing the War 32 Salmon Chase and Jay Cooke 36 Fisk and Gould Profit by Inflation 39 The Panic of 1873 43 Gold Convertibility Restored 46 Chapter 3 Robber Barons and the Gilded Age 55 Republicans Embrace Silver and Inflation 59 The Panic of 1893 62 The Cross of Silver 64 The Turning Point: 1896 66 Chapter 4 The Rise of the Central Bank 73 The Progressive: Theodore Roosevelt 75 A Flexible Currency 79 The Crisis of 1907 83 The National Monetary Commission 86 The Federal Reserve Act 91 Chapter 5 War, Boom, and Bust 99 An Elastic Dollar 107 A Return to Normalcy 113 The Roaring Twenties 116 New Era Finance 118 The Rise of Consumer Finance 121 America Transformed 123 Prelude to the Depression 128 Stocks Fall, Tariffs Rise 131 Deflation and Crash 1929 137 Chapter 6 New Deal to Cold War 145 Broken Promises 148 Gold Seizure and Devaluation 153 Devaluation and Tariffs 158Rise of the Corporate State 160 The Reconstruction Finance Corporation 166 Central Planning Arrives in Washington 171 Federal Deposit Insurance 173 Centralization of the Fed 176 Eccles and the Corporatist Revolution 183 America Goes to War 188 Wartime Finance 193 Bretton Woods 194 Chapter 7 Debt and Inflation 199 Revenues Grow 204 The Fed Regains Independence 207 Postwar Growth 210 Cold War, Free Trade 213 The Golden Age 218 Global Imbalances Return 222 Nixon's Betrayal 226 The Dollar Peg Ends 227 Sovereign Dollar Debt 232 Chapter 8 Leveraging the American Dream 239 The New Uncertainty 243 Full Employment 249 Balanced Budgets and Inflation 254 Shock Treatment 258 The Crisis Managers 263 Latin Debt Crisis 268 Reagan Reappoints Volcker 272 The Neverending Crisis 275 Volatility Returns 278 Boom to Subprime Crisis 281 The Greenspan Legacy 284 Chapter 9 Financial Crisis and Malaise 289 Quantitative Easing 295 The Powell Pivot and COVID 305 The Fed Goes Big 311 Deficits and Central Bank Independence 319 Offshore Dollars and Taxes 325 Chapter 10 New American Dreams 333 The Growth Illusion 341 Inflation and Stagnation 345 A Flexible Currency 352 Tricentennial Dollar? 355 Endgame 358 Notes 365 Selected References 387 Acknowledgments 391 About the Author 393 Index 395.