Deregulation in banking and finance may hold promise for consumers, but what actually seems to be developing is trouble. Large banks are combining into small clusters of mega-banks with national and global reach, supported by government safety nets premised on fears they are too big to be allowed to fail. One result, among several, is that retail banking suffers. Shull and Hanweck evaluate existing bank merger policy and offer workable proposals for new legislative actions that would enhance the benefits of bank mergers without exacerbating the weaknesses. They review the historical role of governments in protecting banks from competition, then the modern policy that promotes competition, and present a model to explain and highlight the problems that today's policies are causing. In the end they turn to their own research and conclude that while a special bank merger policy is still warranted, it needs to be adapted in ways that would rein in the trend toward bigness and soften the impact this has domestically and internationally. A far reaching study essential for executives in all corners of the banking and financial services industry, academic and government researchers, and teachers of business, finance, and public policy.

Many argue that deregulation and technological change have so intensified competition among banks that bank mega-mergers should cause little concern. Shull and Hanweck conclude, however, that a special bank merger policy is still warranted but it needs to be adapted to the way things are today, mainly, the impact that larger banks are having domestically and on the international scene as well. They provide a history of how governments in the U.S. and elsewhere sought to suppress bank competition; then, the unique procompetitive policies that developed in the second half of the Twentieth Century, including the introduction of antitrust standards and deregulation. From their theoretical and empirical evidence they show that the newly combined banks are competitively suspect. From other evidence they find that pricing of retail banking services in local markets does not reflect the improvements that deregulation and rapid technological change have led us to expect. They also describe how current bank merger policy, implemented by the Federal Reserve, other Federal banking agencies and the Justice Department, facilitates the growth of large banks and augments the new structural configuration. Can these problems be solved? Shull and Hanweck believe they can be and propose detailed, workable changes in public policy to do so.

Shrouded in mystery, managed behind closed doors, and the subject of both awe and derision, the Federal Reserve is commonly referred to as the fourth branch of our federal government, with wide-ranging influence over monetary policy, and by extension, banking, price levels, employment rates, and economic growth, income, and wealth. Bernard Shull traces the fascinating and improbable history of this institution from its establishment by an Act of Congress in 1913 to the present day. His careful analysis reveals a paradoxical phenomenon: focusing on three periods of economic stress (the inflation and deflation following World War I, the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Depression, and the stagflation and volatility of the 1970s and 1980s), Shull argues that despite convincing evidence that the Fed contributed to these crises, it has consistently emerged from each more powerful and influential than before. Setting the current profile of the Fed against its evolutionary context, The Fourth Branch sheds new light on the Fed's character and its impact on our economic, political, and cultural history. In many ways, the story of the Fed is the classic American epic: turning adversity into opportunity, responding to threat by innovating and adapting. Even today, under attack by liberals and conservatives alike-in the wake of the stock market bubble, economic recession, and rampant job loss-the Fed is poised to remain strong long after the tenure of legendary Chairman Alan Greenspan. Setting the current profile of the Fed against its evolutionary context, The Fourth Branch sheds new light on the Fed's character and its impact on our economic, political, and cultural history.

The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER) started in 2004 as a data preservation and accessibility project of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER's mission is to safeguard and provide easy access to the nation's economic history-particularly the history of the Federal Reserve System-through digitization of documents related to the U.S. financial system. FRASER preserves and provides access to economic and banking data and policy documents. To this end, various types of documents have been digitized, including: publications of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, publications of District Federal Reserve Banks, states and speeches of Federal Reserve policymakers, archival materials of Federal Reserve policymakers, government data publications, statistical releases, books and Congressional hearings.