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Sat, 20 Apr 2024 11:41:07 -0500

A literal walk in the park brought us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This facade of the Branch Bank of the United States was built in Wall Street in the 1820's and salvaged by the Met a hundred years later. The Second Bank of the United States was headquartered in Philadelphia (hence the "branch bank" on Wall Street) and was another stab at Alexander Hamilton's prescient vision of a stable market for government debt. Like the first U.S. bank, it faltered in the face of populist protest, regional rivalry, and suspicion of central bankers in the cities. Sound familiar?