For the first time since Congress amended the Federal Reserve Act in 1917, the legal base of U. S. credit was arbitrarily changed last week. Emerging from a sweltering all-day session in Washington, the Federal Reserve Board announced a 50% increase in reserve requirements for member banks, effective Aug. 15. After nearly a year of public and private debate over the inflationary dangers of excess reserves, Reserve Board Chairman Marriner Stoddard Eccles had finally taken up the slack in the elaborate brake system provided by the Banking Act of 1935 to stop...
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