Week Eight Online Question - Essay Example

RUNNING HEAD: JACKSONIAN MOVEMENT Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United s Department, Correspondence address. JACKSONIAN MOVEMENT 2Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States The panic of 1819 was probably the first crisis that was faced by America, which was a new state at that point of time. Increasing rates of unemployment during this period led to great discontent among the masses of America, who believed that the policies of the Bank of the United States was to a large extent, responsible for the crisis.

The crisis erupted with many people not being able to pay back the loans that they had taken as a result of the inflation caused by the bank’s credit policies (Panic). In this context, the war that the then President Andrew Jackson (from 1829-1837) declared on the bank seemed to be inspired for a nostalgia for an older order of things that privileged currency. This was in line with the theories of David Ricardo, the English political economist, who argued in favor of hard currency that would enable the economy to escape the cycles of booms and depressions.

This, Andrew Jackson and his supporters felt, would be a lasting solution to the problems that America faced at a time when it was expanding rapidly and monetary policies were a widely debated issue. Jackson’s stance on this matter is considered t be crucial in his re-election to the post of the president of the United States of America. The bank, Jackson felt, indulged in activities that led to the concentration of wealth in the JACKSONIAN MOVEMENT 3hands of people who lived outside America and those sections of the American society which belonged to the upper strata (Andrew).

His efforts according to the speeches that he delivered regarding the future of the Bank of the United States were directed towards the establishment of a nation that would ensure the equality of the people who stayed in it. This, Jackson felt, could be achieved only through a return from credit to hard currency, something that David Ricardo had suggested. His views were appropriated by Jackson and his political friends in order to establish an economic order that they felt would not allow the re-establishment of situations like that which occurred during the panic of 1819, when the banks, since they had lent money that had become less valuable due to inflation, experienced a shortage.

Ricardian currency theories required that the banks regulate the monetary pressures of inflation and deflation through regulating the flow of money into the economy. Jackson’s views were thus, not completely against banks, but called for a reassessment of the roles that banks played in the American economy that would prevent a repeat of the events of 1819. A system was put in place according to which only the amount of money the equivalent of which was present in the bank in gold reserves was allowed to circulate in the economy at any given point of time.

The bank was to continue to perform the functions of regulating the interest rates of loans that would enable it to maintain a stable economy in the country (A Critique). These regulations, once put in place, enabled the United States of America to move forward for a very long period in history without experiencing difficulties the like that they had faced in 1819.JACKSONIAN MOVEMENT 4Works CitedA Critique of Crisis Theory from a Marxist perspective. Web. < http://critiqueofcrisistheory.wordpress.com/ricardos-theories-challenged-by-the-crises-of- 1825-and-1837/ > Accessed on 11th October, 2011.

“Andrew Jackson - The Bank of the United States”. Profiles of U.S. Presidents. Web. < http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Washington-Johnson/Andrew-Jackson-The-bank-of-the- united-states.html > Accessed on 11th October, 2011.“Panic of 1819”. United States History. Web. Accessed on 11th October, 2011.