Why did America create the Fed—and why did it fail its first big test?

Why did America create the Fed—and why did it fail its first big test?

In “Chairman Bernanke's College Lecture Series: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis, Part 1,” Ben Bernanke explains why central banks exist, how the Federal Reserve was created to stabilize money and banking panics, why the gold standard constrained policy, and how the Fed’s failures during the Great Depression shaped later crisis lessons.