Private Finance, Public Power

“Conti-Brown and Vanatta, through deep historical research and tales of key individuals, chart the U.S.’s bank supervisory pendulum from the Constitution through the 1970s. It’s a story of competing theories of capitalism, banking and risk management that is essential reading for the modern moment. As a wave of new bank regulators descends on Washington less than two years after three historic bank failures, bank supervision is at a pivotal moment. “Private Finance, Public Power” holds countless insights for bank supervision stakeholders to at least only make new mistakes.”—Steven Kelly, American Banker

Peter Conti-Brown is the Class of 1965 Associate Professor of Financial Regulation at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a nonresident fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve and the coauthor of The Law of Financial Institutions.

Sean H. Vanatta is senior lecturer in financial history and policy at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of Plastic Capitalism: Banks, Credit Cards, and the End of Financial Control.