He focused on tariff reform in the Underwood-Simmons Act by arguing that high tariffs created monopolies and hurt consumers, pushed to end certain child labor practices, and above all tried to engender a fairer distribution of public funds for housing, utilities, and public projects (Wilson, 2011).
However, looking back at his pre-World War I policies, it was his adamant work on currency and banking reform that seemed to have the greatest impact on American society. The Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy is the most important function of the Fed and is probably the most used policy in macroeconomics. Monetary policy refers to the actions undertaken by a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve, to influence the availability and cost of money and credit to help promote national economic goals. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 gave the Federal Reserve responsibility for setting monetary policy. The Federal Reserve controls the three tools of monetary policy- open market operations, the discount rate and reserve requirements. Open market operations, purchases and sales of U.S. Treasury and federal agency securities, are the Federal Reserve's principal tool for implementing monetary policy. The discount rate is the interest rate charged to commercial banks and other depository institutions on loans they receive from their regional Federal Reserve Bank's lending facility; the discount window. The Federal Reserve Banks offer three discount window programs to depository institutions: primary credit, secondary credit, and seasonal credit, each with its own interest rate (Colander, 2007).
Prior to this Act, the U.S. was without a central bank after the Second Bank of the United States ended. After various financial panics, particularly a severe on in 1907, Wilson and others believed that it was necessary to have a central agency that would protect the U.S., provide a ready reserve of liquid assets, and allow currency and credit to expand. Wilson believed that the only way the United States could become a world power, and have the type of economic system in which there was confidence at home and abroad, was to give a central agency power to regulate...
The largest opposition to Wilson came from business-friendly Republicans who saw this as just another way the Federal government was exerting its authority over all aspects of society. Instead, Wilson was able to place a new agency with obligations both to the U.S. Treasury and to the American people, to build confidence in funding and issue policies that would be favorable to all aspects of society -- not just the wealthy (Johnson, 2010).
In many ways, we can find some similarities between President's Grant and Wilson. Even though they were members of different political parties, they both issued legislation designed to affect the lowest segment of society and believed that domestic policy should serve the greater public good. Wilson was an intellectual, Grant a soldier, yet both believed they were personal representatives of the people of the United States. Both governed at a time of great crisis -- the crisis of rebuilding the Union for Grant, the crisis of an economy and political system in flux under Wilson. Yet both managed to find ways to utilize public policy to buttress their message and viewpoint.
REFERENCES
Grant: A Reference Resource. (2011). Miller Center at the University of Virginia. Cited in: http://millercenter.org/president/grant/essays/biography/4
Woodrow Wilson. (2011). Conservapedia.com. Cited in: http://www.conservapedia.com/Woodrow_Wilson
Wilson: A Reference Resource. (2011). Miller Center at the University of Virginia. Cited in:
http://millercenter.org/president/wilson/essays/biography/4
Foner, E. (2002). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution: 1863
1877. Harper.
Johnson, R. (2010). Historical Beginnings: The Federal Reserve. Boston: The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Cited in: http://www.bos.frb.org/about/pubs/begin.pdf
Scaturro, F. (1999). President Grant Reconsidered. Lanham, MD: Madison Books.
Schuster, W.M., (2009). For the Greater Good: The Use of Public Policy. Houston Law Review. 46 (1); 467-79. Cited in: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1368469
