America Went 77 Years Without a Central Bank — So Who Controlled the Money?

For 77 years, the United States operated without a central bank. No Federal Reserve. No lender of last resort. No single institution managing the money supply. Instead, the financial system was a chaotic patchwork of state-chartered banks, wildcat operators hiding in the wilderness, and a handful of impossibly powerful private financiers who decided behind closed doors whether the economy would boom or crash.