The Federal Reserve Board is composed of 7 members removable by #POTUS only for cause. #SCOTUS upheld the constitutionality of such independent agencies in Humphrey’s Executor v. US. But that case was undermined by the #SupremeCourt decision in Trump v. Wilcox to allow the removal of a member of the NLRB. Now, Trump has fired a member of the Federal Reserve Board. Will the Court uphold the Board’s independence in Trump v. Cook? #law #history #economics

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/the-lender-of-last-resort?r=2j3pr7

After the Dobbs decision, many predicted the #scotus conservative majority would roll back decades of cases finding unenumerated constitutional rights under the controversial doctrine of substantive due process.
But in Maribelli v. Bonta, the shoe was on the other foot. The majority held on Monday that a parent’s right to be informed by the school of their child’s gender transition is protected by substantive due process. #law #supremecourt #shadowdocket

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25a810_b97d.pdf

Today, populism is associated with the politics of anger, reaction, and unreason. It evokes enraged mobs wielding pitchforks and torches. But the Populist Party of the nineteenth century was very different. Populists agitated for collective bargaining, greenbacks, regulation of railroads, a progressive income tax, direct election of senators, an end to corporate subsidies, secret-ballot elections, and a shorter workweek. A major plank was “bimetallism.”
#history #law

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/bimetallism?r=2j3pr7

In the subsequently infamous case of Swift v. Tyson (1842), the #SupremeCourt held that a federal court exercising diversity jurisdiction should apply a general federal commercial law instead of the common #law of the state in which it sat. Although the case is considered wrongly decided today, a uniform system of laws governing commercial transactions crossing state lines was thought crucial in the early Republic for economic development. #history #scotus #economics

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/greenbacks?r=2j3pr7

Something that most people today don’t know about John Quincy Adams is that he was a stone-cold legend. In Congress he advocated for public education, justice for Native Americans, legal rights for women and African Americans, public support for the sciences, and nonpartisanship in federal employment. He opposed the congressional “gag-rule” that prohibited debating slavery and opposed the Mexican-American War on anti-imperialist grounds. #history #Law

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/internal-improvements?r=2j3pr7

Most people assume that when they deposit money into their checking account, their money is safe and securely stored “there” at the bank. In fact, banks lend your deposits and earn interest (while simultaneously charging you checking fees!). This is known as “fractional reserve #banking.”

But if the bank has double-booked your deposits by promising them to multiple people, what happens when you all try and withdraw it at the same time? #economics #history

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/the-money-multipliers

Negotiability was the key legal concept in the emergence of paper money as a medium of exchange. In medieval times, a bill of exchange between merchants could be indorsed to third parties in subsequent transactions, allowing it to circulate as cash. Although negotiable instruments sound like something obscure and technical, regular people use them all the time. When you pay your electricity bill by check, you’re drawing a negotiable instrument. #law #history #economics

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/fat-stacks-an-origin-story

We experience the issuance of money and the control of its supply in the economy as uniquely governmental functions. But according to economic theory, money is a natural product of market forces, not governments, and its regulation is best left to those forces.

Given the ubiquity of money in our everyday lives, it’s easy to take its existence for granted. But where does money come from? And, like, what even is money? #economics #money #history

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/mediums-of-exchange

In his war against the Bank of the U.S., President Jackson sought to break the power of the financial class and their empire of paper money. But in destroying the sole institution capable of reining in the profligacy of state banks, Jackson unshackled a chaotic and unregulated money system that would fuel economic instability for generations. Not until the twentieth century would the government again try to create a federal bank. #federalreserve #centralbanking #history

https://senatormoobs.substack.com/p/the-bank-war