Not to be confused with the Midas touch, the gold standard is a basis for gauging the value of currency, and it played a critical role in the establishment of the U.S. dollar. The nation steadily veered further and further from a true gold standard, and today the U.S. dollar is truly fiat in nature — not backed by any intrinsically valuable commodity. …Read more

When it comes to the federal reserve, there’s levels to understand. You’ve got the federal reserve, located in Washington, D.C, home to the chairman of the Fed and the members of the Board of Governors. But then you’ve also got several regional branches of the federal reserve — twelve, to be exact — that play their own roles within the national banking infrastructure. …Read more

When was the last time you heard mention of any central bank? During the lesson on Alexander Hamilton in your eighth grade American History class? You’re probably not alone. …Read more

What’s that you say? You don’t know the first thing about what fractional-reserve banking is or how it works? You’re not alone. We recently conducted a study of 1,000 US consumers and nearly 26% of respondents believed that banks were required to hold 100% of customer deposits in reserves. …Read more