With President Donald Trump using any means to force the Federal Reserve to pump up the money supply, that institution and that variable remain the focus of news. That certainly will remain over the next 18 months as results of his other policy changes, many still yo-yoing on a daily basis, work their way through the larger economy.

The column last week explained basic concepts of money and the history of banking in our country. It ended at Congress establishing 12 Federal Reserve Banks in 1913. These could expand and contract available money to meet the needs of an expanding economy. They also could intervene as needed to prevent banking-sector crises that touched off major recessions. These scourged the poor harder than anyone else.

When a local commercial bank in a district was short

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