The government isn’t the only entity allowed to issue money. Private citizens and businesses can too, and throughout U.S. history, they often have. But private money—as such money is called—isn’t issued much these days. What lessons have our experiences with private money taught us, and what do they imply for our money today and in the future?

Graph and download economic data for Credit to Private Non-Financial Sector by Domestic Banks, Unadjusted for Breaks, for United States (CRDQUSBPUBIS) from Q4 1945 to Q1 2025 about credits, nonfinancial, sector, domestic, banks, depository institutions, private, and USA.

It’s hard to pick up a newsmagazine or financial paper these days without reading about one of the new forms of electronic money. Although the business case for stored-value cards and cybermoney has not been proven in this country, media coverage has been lavish. Nearly all the stories, however, neglect one important fact: High-tech payments systems are best defined as a form of private money, something that has existed for centuries.

Beth M. Hammack—President and Chief Executive Officer-Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland- Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and The Bank Policy Institute, 9th Annual SIPA/BPI Bank Regulation Research Conference, New York, New York, February 27, 2025, 1:15 PM EST

As the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve supports the effective operation of the US economy, acting in the public interest to promote the stability of the financial system.

A central bank is the term used to describe the authority responsible for policies that affect a country’s supply of money and credit. More specifically, a central bank uses its tools of monetary policy—open market operations, discount window lending, changes in reserve requirements—to affect short-term interest rates and the monetary base (currency held by the public plus bank reserves) and to achieve important policy goals.

Content

Weighted average of the rates received on the interest-bearing assets included in M2. The interest-bearing assets include size of the other checkable deposits, thrift saving deposits, money market mutual fund holdings, and small time deposits that are weighted using their corresponding rates.

The construction of this series was discontinued as of July 12, 2019. The underlying data can be accessed through the following sources: size of the assets can be obtained from the H.6 release (https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/default.htm) published by the Board of Governors, rate on the money market mutual funds from iMoneyNet (https://financialintelligence.informa.com/products-and-services/data-analysis-and-tools/imoneynet), and the remaining rates from the Weekly National Rates and Rate Caps (https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/resources/rates/index.html) from the FDIC website. Listing of the sources is provided for informational purposes only: the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is not associated with any listed private entities and cannot guarantee that the listed data sources will provide the data in the future.

Context

This is a dataset from the Federal Reserve hosted by the Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED). FRED has a data platform found here and they update their information according to the frequency that the data updates. Explore the Federal Reserve using Kaggle and all of the data sources available through the Federal Reserve organization page!

• Update Frequency: This dataset is updated daily.

• Observation Start: 1959-02-01

• Observation End : 2019-06-01

Acknowledgements

This dataset is maintained using FRED's API and Kaggle's API.

Cover photo by Leon Skibitzki on Unsplash
Unsplash Images are distributed under a unique Unsplash License.

United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: Plus 3 Qtrs data was reported at 1.350 USD mn in Jun 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 1.290 USD mn for Mar 2018. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: Plus 3 Qtrs data is updated quarterly, averaging 1.500 USD mn from Dec 1968 (Median) to Jun 2018, with 199 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.100 USD mn in Dec 1972 and a record low of 0.662 USD mn in Jun 2009. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: Plus 3 Qtrs data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.EA007: Private Housing Units: Started and Authorized: Forecast: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: QoQ%: Plus 2 Qtrs data was reported at 4.839 % in Jun 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 0.945 % for Mar 2018. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: QoQ%: Plus 2 Qtrs data is updated quarterly, averaging 2.888 % from Dec 1968 (Median) to Jun 2018, with 199 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 80.438 % in Mar 1975 and a record low of -23.878 % in Sep 1978. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: QoQ%: Plus 2 Qtrs data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.EA007: Private Housing Units: Started and Authorized: Forecast: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Graph and download economic data for Private Depository Institutions; Federal Funds and Security Repurchase Agreements Issued by the Central Bank; Asset (FWTW), Transactions (BOGZ1FA702050073A) from 1946 to 2020 about central bank, funds, repurchase agreements, issues, transactions, securities, federal, assets, depository institutions, private, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Total Credit to Private Non-Financial Sector, Adjusted for Breaks, for United States (QUSPAM770A) from Q4 1947 to Q1 2025 about adjusted, credits, nonfinancial, sector, private, and USA.

Caught between the end of the National Banking Era and the beginning of the Federal Reserve System, the crisis of 1914 provides an example of a banking panic avoided. We investigate how this outcome was achieved by examining data on the issues of Aldrich-Vreeland emergency currency and clearing house loan certificates to New York City institutions that identify the borrower and the quantity requested for each type of temporary liquidity measure. The extensive provision of temporary credit to a wide array of financial intermediaries was, in our opinion, essential to the successful alleviation of financial distress in 1914. Empirical results indicate an important role for clearing house loan certificates that is distinct from the influence of Aldrich-Vreeland emergency currency issues.

A discussion of whether public outlays influence private investment, modeling the timing and effectiveness of public infrastructure as a local policy instrument.

This dataset represents a snapshot of the FRED catalog, captured on 2025-03-24.

What is FRED? As per the FRED website,

Short for Federal Reserve Economic Data, FRED is an online database consisting of hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources. FRED, created and maintained by the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, goes far beyond simply providing data: It combines data with a powerful mix of tools that help the user understand, interact with, display, and disseminate the data. In essence, FRED helps users tell their data stories. The purpose of this article is to guide the potential (or current) FRED user through the various aspects and tools of the database.

The FRED database is an abolute gold mine of economic data time series. Thousands of such series are published on the FRED website, organized by category and avialable for viewing and downloading. In fact, a number of these economic datasets have been uploaded to kaggle. With in the current notebook, however, we are not interested in the individual time series; rather, we are focused on catalog itself.

The FRED API has been used for gaining access to the catalog. The catalog consists of two files

• categories.csv - the heirarchy of categories used for organizing the time series
• series.csv - the list of avialable time series themselves

A given category is identified by a category_id. And, in a similar fashion, a given series is identified by a series_id. In a given category, one may find both a group of series and a set of sub-categories. As such every series record contains a category_id to identify the immediate category under which it is found category record contains a parent_id to indicate where in the category heirarchy it resides

United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: QoQ% data was reported at 0.203 % in Jun 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5.881 % for Mar 2018. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: QoQ% data is updated quarterly, averaging -2.647 % from Dec 1968 (Median) to Jun 2018, with 199 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 77.252 % in Sep 1980 and a record low of -66.999 % in Jun 1980. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Median: QoQ% data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.EA007: Private Housing Units: Started and Authorized: Forecast: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: Plus 1 Qtr data was reported at 1.332 USD mn in Jun 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 1.284 USD mn for Mar 2018. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: Plus 1 Qtr data is updated quarterly, averaging 1.442 USD mn from Dec 1968 (Median) to Jun 2018, with 199 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.239 USD mn in Jun 1972 and a record low of 0.565 USD mn in Jun 2009. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: Plus 1 Qtr data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.EA007: Private Housing Units: Started and Authorized: Forecast: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: QoQ%: Plus 1 Qtr data was reported at 4.111 % in Jun 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 6.726 % for Mar 2018. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: QoQ%: Plus 1 Qtr data is updated quarterly, averaging 1.669 % from Dec 1968 (Median) to Jun 2018, with 199 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 77.919 % in Jun 1975 and a record low of -41.517 % in Dec 1979. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: QoQ%: Plus 1 Qtr data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.EA007: Private Housing Units: Started and Authorized: Forecast: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Graph and download economic data for Bank Credit to the Private Sector in the United Kingdom (BCPSUKM) from Dec 1921 to Feb 2017 about academic data, credits, United Kingdom, sector, banks, depository institutions, and private.

United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: Plus 4 Qtrs data was reported at 1.315 USD mn in Dec 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1.341 USD mn for Sep 2018. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: Plus 4 Qtrs data is updated quarterly, averaging 1.504 USD mn from Dec 1968 (Median) to Dec 2018, with 196 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.079 USD mn in Jun 1972 and a record low of 0.714 USD mn in Sep 2011. United States FRBOP Forecast: Housing Starts: Mean: Plus 4 Qtrs data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.EA007: Private Housing Units: Started and Authorized: Forecast: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

United States FRBOP Forecast: Annual Housing Starts: Mean: Current data was reported at 1.264 USD mn in Dec 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1.293 USD mn for Sep 2018. United States FRBOP Forecast: Annual Housing Starts: Mean: Current data is updated quarterly, averaging 1.400 USD mn from Sep 1981 (Median) to Dec 2018, with 150 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.083 USD mn in Jun 1986 and a record low of 0.558 USD mn in Jun 2009. United States FRBOP Forecast: Annual Housing Starts: Mean: Current data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.EA007: Private Housing Units: Started and Authorized: Forecast: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.