“America’s Bank”  by Roger Lowenstein tells how our Federal Reserve system came into being. At the start of the 20th century, the U.S. was the world’s sole industrialized nation to lack a central banking system.   In this unregulated banking system, says Lowenstein, local banks often overextended their deposits and issued undervalued bank notes, resulting in bad credit, bank failures and full-on depressions.   Despite this,  the idea of a central bank was resisted by many Americans.  But after the bank panic of 1907, interest in a national banking system gained momentum. Lowenstein details the debates and trade-offs that led to the creation of Federal Reserve System (1913), which sets interest rates and monetary policy.  This is a “ tour de force of historical reportage.”  Another MVSB Book of the Month