A debate stretching back to America’s founding recently resurfaced during this election cycle, with Donald Trump’s suggesting the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s monetary policy favors the incumbent party’s bid to retain political power. From the beginning of our nation’s origins, our leaders have quarreled over the power and influence of a central bank. Initially, opposition led by Thomas Jefferson, centered on the concentration of economic clout a central bank would necessarily possess, claiming it would benefit manufacturers and traders in New England over agrarian interests in other states. However, with war debts still needing to be repaid, merchants and farmers having to rely on credit from one another or on banks in England, and each state issuing its own currency, the argument favoring a central bank prevailed. At the time of its creation, just three local banks operated in all of the 13 states, one in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia.