Biography
Young was a messenger for a bank at the age of eight. He then worked as assistant cashier and joined the Citizens National Bank as vice president in 1913. From 1919 to 1927 he was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis before becoming chairman of the of the Federal Reserve Board. From 1930 to 1942 he served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. After his resignation, he changed to become chairman of the Merchants National Bank and later chairman of American Woolen Company.
During his term in office as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board there was confrontation between the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York under George L. Harrison of how to curb speculation that led inter alia to the stock market boom of the late 1920s. The Board was in favor of putting "direct pressure" on the lending member banks while the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wanted to raise the discount rate. The Board under Young disapproved this step, however Young himself was not fully convinced that the policy of using pressure would work and refused to sign the 1929 Annual Report of the Board because it contained parts favorable to this policy.
Read more about this topic: Roy A. Young
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
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—Rebecca West (1892–1983)