Background
Oliver was born on April 22, 1873 in Somerville, Massachussets, United States, the son of William Wallace Sprague and Miriam Wentworth Sprague.
(Excerpt from Loans and Investments They furnish borrowe...)
Excerpt from Loans and Investments They furnish borrowers, because they provide a more or less generally acceptable substitute for coined money as a circulating or purchasing medium. The bank note, the promise of a bank to pay money on demand, is quite obviously a credit instrument which is a substitute for money; and in the absence of legal restrictions upon issue the volume of such notes in circulation would clearly depend upon the willingness of people to accept them in payment for goods and services. Partly because of legislation limiting the power to issue notes, and even more because the check has been found more convenient for most purposes, the bank note has become a subordinate and rather special means of extending credit. Banks, of course, do not extend credit directly by issuing checks, since the check is an order on a bank to pay money, not a bank's promise to pay money. Such orders are based upon obligations to pay money recorded on the books of the bank, known as deposits. This term deposits is a misnomer. It suggests to most people that the bank has at some time or other received from depositors the amount of their deposits in money. Banks are often spoken of as lending their deposits. This is a most inaccurate and misleading use of lan guage, since deposits are obligations already in curred, an existing liability, which, moreover, is largely due to loans granted. Clearly a bank can not lend its already existing obligations to pay. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ...it is clear that the banks were not strong enough to meet the more occasional, but also more severe, requirements of an emergency. Their responsibility at such a time was in no way connected either with the system of note issue or the movements of government funds. Trust company balances afford an excellent example. The deposits of the trust companies with the national banks increased steadily with the growth of their banking operations. Most of them were city institutions, subject to no seasonal variations in the requirements of their depositors for cash, but as few of the trust companies held cash reserves, in receiving deposits from them the banks were assuming a risk of a particularly explosive character. But they did not on this account maintain reserves proportionately greater than those held in former years. It is therefore difficult to escape the conclusion that, if all government funds had been deposited with the banks upon their receipt, loans would have been still further increased in those months, when, in fact, money was withdrawn from the market by the Government. Legislative changes may remove obstacles to sound banking, but they can not take its place altogether. INDICATIONS OF APPROACHING REACTION. The failure of the banks holding the ultimate reserve of the country to live up to the responsibilities of their position is evident in still another direction. While the exact moment of the outbreak of the crisis of 1907 could not be foreseen, the imminence of a period of trade reaction had been for many months so probable that precautionary measures might reasonably have been expected from these banks, if not from the banks and the public in general. A short account of the course of events during 1906 and 1907 down to the...
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(Banking reform in the United States; a series of proposal...)
Banking reform in the United States; a series of proposals, including a central bank of limited scope (192 pages)
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Oliver was born on April 22, 1873 in Somerville, Massachussets, United States, the son of William Wallace Sprague and Miriam Wentworth Sprague.
He was educated at St. Johnsbury Academy (Vermont) and at Harvard College, where he received the B. A. in 1894, summa cum laude.
He received the M. A. in 1895 and the Ph. D. in economics in 1897 from Harvard.
Following a year of study in England, Sprague returned to Harvard as an assistant in economics (1899), then served as instructor (1900 - 1904) and assistant professor (1904 - 1905).
From 1905 to 1908 Sprague was professor of economics at Imperial University, Tokyo. He then returned to Harvard's newly established Graduate School of Business Administration. From 1913 to 1941 he held the Edmund Cogswell Converse professorship of banking and finance, the first endowed chair at the school.
Two books, History of Crises Under the National Banking System (1910) and Banking Reform in the United States (1913), made Sprague a sought-after financial expert when the United States Federal Reserve System was established during Woodrow Wilson's presidency.
His books helped to dispel fears that central banks would be controlled by selfish interests rather than serve the public good. Subsequently he published important articles on the Federal Reserve System in Quarterly Journal of Economics (August 1916) and American Economic Review (March 1921).
During World War I, Sprague advocated that the United States government should limit inflation by means of heavier taxes, and during World War II he counseled against too much government borrowing. Some segments of the press referred to him as Sound Money Sprague.
He resigned in November 1933, however, because of differences with Roosevelt over approaches to economic recovery. He especially opposed efforts to manipulate the value of the dollar in order to raise prices. In 1934 he published Recovery and Common Sense, which denounced dollar-devaluation policies and advocated lower prices and free competition as means of heightening the demand for consumer goods and capital.
He also advised private groups as a member of the board of directors of the National Shawmut Bank of Boston and the advisory board of Massachusetts Investors Trust, and a consultant on foreign exchange problems to the General Motors Corporation.
He died on May 24, 1953 in Boston.
(Excerpt from Loans and Investments They furnish borrowe...)
(Banking reform in the United States; a series of proposal...)
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
(Lang:- English, Pages 182. Reprinted in 2015 with the hel...)
In this endeavor, and in subsequent advisory roles, he sought to support the international gold standard. Sprague contended that lower prices would lead to an increased demand for goods and services, which in turn would enlarge the need for labor and materials.
Among the programs he urged was a strong set of guidelines to provide better housing at lower cost for people with annual incomes under $2, 000.
He consistently advised that monetary devices alone were insufficient to resolve the vast problems in the economy. Sprague urged that lessons be drawn from previous depressions to note the range of factors in business, labor, supply, consumerism, and currency that warrant attention in striving for economic recovery. Nonetheless, he steadfastly advocated a return to an international gold standard as one essential step to long-range economic stability.
Sprague was a specialist in finance during an era when his field underwent extensive changes. He was both a participant and a commentator as new issues arose: bimetallism, the evolution of central banking, and the scientific study of cyclical movements in business.
Sprague was a dignified, urbane, and popular teacher who was admired for his kindly, wise, and courteous manner. His lectures were models of presentation. Handicapped by defective vision, which hindered his reading and research, he developed keen skills of organization and lucidity.
On June 21, 1905, he married Fanny Knights Ide of St. Johnsbury, Vermont; they had two children.