Peter Conti-Brown and Sean Vanatta on the History of Bank Supervision in America

Peter Conti-Brown is a historian and legal scholar of the Federal Reserve System, and an associate professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Sean Vanatta is a senior lecturer in financial history and policy at the University of Glasgow. Peter and Sean join the show to discuss their new book titled: Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America, as well as how powerlifting can be analogized in macroeconomics, and the implications of Trump v. Wilcox.

Check out the transcript for this week’s episode, now with links.

Recorded on May 27th, 2025

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:02 - Powerlifting

00:06:17 - Trump v. Wilcox

00:12:27 - Private Finance, Public Power

00:15:18 - Supervision vs. Regulation

00:22:52 - Banking in the Early Republic

00:36:10 - Consolidation of Regulators

00:41:06 - Focus of the Fed

00:45:00 - The Great Depression

00:56:10 - When to Let a Bank Fail

01:02:47 - Outro