Subtitled, }How Money & Debt Built The American Dream{ Americans as a whole view themselves as reasonably prudent and sober people when it comes to matters of money, even though the choices we make at the ballot box and in Washington seem at odds with that self image. Preface. Acknowledgments. Chapter One Free Banking and Private Money. The Bank of the United States. State Debt Defaults. The Age of Andrew Jackson. The Panic of 1837. The Gold Rush. The Rise of Bank Clearinghouses. Chapter Two Lincoln Saves a Nation by Printing Money. The Lincoln Legacy. Financing the War. Salmon Chase and Jay Cooke. Fisk & Gould Profit by Inflation. The Panic of 1873. Gold Convertibility Restored. The Battle Over Silver Money. A Changing American Dream. The Silver Compromise. Chapter Three Robber Barons and the Gilded Age. The Age of Speculation. Republicans Embrace Inflation. The Panic of 1893. The Cross of Silver. The Evangelical Silverites. The Turning Point: 1896. Chapter Four The Rise of the Central Bank. The Trust Buster: Theodore Roosevelt. The Need for a Flexible Currency. The Crisis of 1907. The National Monetary Commission. The Passage of the Federal Reserve Act. Roosevelt, Wilson and the Politics of Reform. Chapter Five War, Boom & Bust. The Fed During WW I. A Return to Republican Normalcy. The Roaring Twenties. The New Era of Debt and Investing. The Bust: Stocks Fall and Tariffs Rise. Chapter Six New Deal to Cold War. FDR and the Era of Broken Precedent. The Seizure of Gold and Dollar Devaluation. Dollar Devaluation Hurt World Trade. The Rise of the Corporate State. Central Planning Arrives in Washington. FDR Embraces Federal Deposit Insurance. The Legacy of FDR. The Fed and The RFC. Corportivist Reform at the Fed. The New Deal Fails, So America Goes to War. Wartime Inflation and Debt Finance. Bretton Woods and Global Inflation. Chapter Seven Debt and Inflation A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats. Federal Revenues Grow. The Fed Regains Independence. The Post War Economy Soars. The Legacy of War. Cold War, Free Trade. The Dollar s Golden Age. Global Imbalances Return. Richard Nixon s Betrayal. The End of the Dollar Peg. The Return of Sovereign Borrowing. Chapter Eight Leveraging the American Dream. The New Uncertainty. Humphrey Hawkins and Full Employment. Balanced Budgets and Inflation. Volcker s Shock Treatment. The Crisis Managers. The Latin Debt Crisis. Volcker s Apprentice: Gerald Corrigan. Reagan Reappoints Volcker. The Never ending Crisis. Volcker Exits and Crisis Returns. From Excess to Delusion. The Greenspan Legacy. Chapter Nine Prospects. The Growth Challenge. Growth versus Inflation. Changing Places. Triffin s Dilemma and the Dollar. Notes. About the Author. Index.