Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Drawing on his new book Cronyism: Rise of the Corporate Estate, 1849–1929, Patrick Newman makes the case that the Federal Reserve is the signature example of policy that serves a special interest at the public's expense. He first dismantles the standard justification — modern research finds the pre-Fed panics were less severe than advertised, and the real problems traced to regulations like the branch-banking ban. He then follows the money: Wall Street's declining market share, its campaign for a New York–controlled central bank, the Jekyll Island meeting, and what followed — a rising share of bank reserves, the dollar's ascent over the pound, and a credit expansion that ended in 1929.
Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 22, 2026.
Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.
0:00 Intro: Cronyism and the Federal Reserve
2:16 Rothbard's First Supreme Court Citation
4:13 The Public-Interest Myth and the Panic Narrative
8:34 How Government Caused the Instability
12:03 Wall Street Before the Fed
14:57 Wall Street's Two Problems: Balances and the Dollar
18:49 What Wall Street Wanted, and Its Allies
22:54 The Jekyll Island Meeting
26:10 What Wall Street Got from the Federal Reserve Act
30:12 The Fed in World War I
34:43 The Fed in the 1920s and the Gold Exchange Standard
41:22 The Boom, the Bust, and the Great Depression
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Drawing on his new book Cronyism: Rise of the Corporate Estate, 1849–1929, Patrick Newman makes the case that the Federal Reserve is the signature example of policy that serves a special interest at the public's expense. He first dismantles the standard justification — modern research finds the pre-Fed panics were less severe than advertised, and the real problems traced to regulations like the branch-banking ban. He then follows the money: Wall Street's declining market share, its campaign for a New York–controlled central bank, the Jekyll Island meeting, and what followed — a rising share of bank reserves, the dollar's ascent over the pound, and a credit expansion that ended in 1929.
Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 22, 2026.
Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.
0:00 Intro: Cronyism and the Federal Reserve
2:16 Rothbard's First Supreme Court Citation
4:13 The Public-Interest Myth and the Panic Narrative
8:34 How Government Caused the Instability
12:03 Wall Street Before the Fed
14:57 Wall Street's Two Problems: Balances and the Dollar
18:49 What Wall Street Wanted, and Its Allies
22:54 The Jekyll Island Meeting
26:10 What Wall Street Got from the Federal Reserve Act
30:12 The Fed in World War I
34:43 The Fed in the 1920s and the Gold Exchange Standard
41:22 The Boom, the Bust, and the Great Depression
Find free books, daily articles, podcasts, lecture series, and everything about the Austrian School of Economics at https://Mises.org.
X ► https://x.com/mises/
Facebook ► facebook.com/mises.institute
Instagram ► instagram.com/misesinstitute
SoundCloud ► soundcloud.com/misesmedia
Apple Podcasts ► podcasts.apple.com/us/artist/mises-institute/1280664810
Rumble ► rumble.com/c/c-2212754
Odysee ► odysee.com/@mises
Podcasts ► mises.org/podcasts
