It is simple to state how the money supply is so centrally controlled. It is hard to believe. I have personally observed that non -economists find it almost impossible to believe that twelve people- out of nineteen--none of whom have been elected by the public--sitting around a table in a magnificent Greek temple on Constitutional Avenue in Washington have the awesome legal power to double or to halve the total quantity of money in the country.
The exercise of this arbitrary power has sometimes been
beneficial. However, in my view, it has more often been harmful. The Federal Reserve System authorized by the Congress in 1913 and beginning operations in 1914, presided over the more than doubling of prices that occurred during and after World War I. It's overreaction produced the subsequent sharp depression of 1920-21. After a brief interval of stability in the 1920s, it's actions significantly intensified and lengthened the great contraction of 1929-33. More recently, the Fed was responsible for the accelerating inflation of the 1970s--to cite just a few examples of how it's power has been used.
The above quote is from Milton Friedman's 1994 book Money Mischief Episodes in Monetary History.
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