"Toma's new book makes an important and original argument - that the decentralized early Federal Reserve System can be better understood as a quasi-competitive money-issuing system than as a unitary central bank - that forcefully challenges the received monetary history of the 1910s and 1920s. Readers who begin as sceptics, when they grapple with the details of the argument, will ... Read morefind themselves compelled to acknowledge the valuable insights and stubborn facts it brings to light." - Lawrence H. White, Professor of Economics, George Mason University, USA "Toma defends a thesis that is bound to raise other monetary economists' hackles. . . . While many will find such claims hard to swallow, they will also profit, as I have, by pondering Toma's challenge to conventional wisdom." - George Selgin, Professor of Economics, The University of Georgia, USA Show Less