American business: banking.

American ambivalence toward banks and central bankers has never been shared by the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decisions in banking law have supported both a national bank and a national banking system...

As the largest backer of business loans in the United States, the Small Business Administration strengthens the American economy by enabling small businesses to function effectively.

Savings and loan associations are similar to banks but offer a somewhat narrower range of services because of government restrictions and their traditional emphasis on saving and lending money.

The U.S. postal savings bank program provided limited banking service to an underserved population, kept money in general circulation, and provided the federal government with a cheap source of funds to help finance the public debt.

Pension and retirement plans became expected job benefits during the twentieth century, increasing the overhead of employment for many firms but also providing workers with significant income on retirement.

Morris Plan banks allowed Americans of limited economic means to build credit.

Morgan exercised tremendous economic power through J. P. Morgan and Company, the nation’s most prosperous private banking house; a railroad empire built by reorganizing bankrupt lines and gaining a controlling interest in many of the nation’s major lines; and the United States Steel Corporation, then the world’s largest business.

Federal monetary policy exerts a powerful influence on aggregate demand for goods and services and thus on output, prices, interest rates, and foreign-exchange rates.

The chair of the Federal Reserve is often described as the most powerful person in the United States after the president.

Adoption of the gold standard stabilized international currency exchange rates and enabled free trade, thereby aiding the growth of American business during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

More than any other single individual, Garner was responsible for the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, putting an end to widespread runs on banks in the United States.

Most businesses with pension plans have replaced traditional defined-benefit plans with 401(k) retirement plans, or what are classified as defined-contribution pension plans.

Although four other sites also store the nation’s gold bullion holdings, the federal depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, has served as the primary U.S. gold safeguarding facility since the first years of the New Deal, with assets during the early twenty-first century estimated at 147.3 million ounces of gold valued at more than $123 billion.

The crisis disrupted housing markets, mortgage markets, and finance and credit markets generally.

As the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve is the institution in which the federal government and private banks do their banking.

Establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation helped eliminate bank panics, which had been a major contributor to business depressions.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States helps encourage and maintain trade between the United States and other nations by reducing the risks associated with that trade.

As the first multiple-business charge card, Diners Club revolutionized the American economy and consumer culture by creating a means of effecting cash-free transactions and permitting consumers ready access to credit.

Deregulation contributed to efficiency and innovation in the financial sector, but also to economic crises.

The money supply is an important determinant of aggregate demand and business conditions in general.

Attacking the gold monetary standard in favor of bimetallism, Bryan defended Western farmers and the “common man” against banks and the wealth of the Eastern United States.

Credit unions were created as a means of dealing with the credit problems of low-income families, particularly industrial workers.

General-purpose credit cards, unknown in the United States before 1958, have become an essential feature of commerce.