The passage below relates to the brief history of the federal reserve. Can you kindly give a better understanding of what the brief history of the federal reserve is about?

A brief histor of the F... mesa/2.5L Wb a business wants to expand, a family 871 wants to buy a house, or a government wants to increase public spending, they need to borrow. The nancial system is supposed to be the plumbing of the economy, letting credit ow where it is needed. But this plumbing is defectiveit's a source of instability and crisis, as the supply of credit is either cut back to a trickle or pours out in oods. And it is also a site of political conict: the majority of us, as borrowers, want credit to be cheap and abundant, while creditors (those we owe money to) want to keep it expensive and scarce. Thus, there is a fundamental conict between people who borrow money and people who lend it. The Federal Reserve was set up to adjust the supply ofcredit to meet the needs of the real economy and manage this conict, but in practice it serves the interests ofcreditors. Debtor Versus Creditor: An Old Conflict Conict over debt is as old as the United States. Shays's Rebellion, an armed uprising against the new government in the 17805, was a rebellion of debtors against creditors. When banks and moneylenders cut of credit to small farmers and demanded repayment, farmers who could not pay their debts saw their land seized and sold at auction to pay off their creditors. CENTER FOR POPULAR ECONOMICS \"up.\" \"emucwm Rather than accept the loss of their homes, hundreds of veterans took up arms and marched on courthouses to halt the foreclosures. One hundred years later, another period of rising debt burdens gave birth to the Populists, a movement of farmers, small business owners, and workers. At that time, the United States was on the gold standard, so bank lending was strictly linked to the supply of gold. Many people thought this was normal and natural. But it meant that as the economy grew, unless there were lucky gold discoveries, there was no way for the supply of money to grow with it. When something is scarce, that's good news for whoever owns it and bad news for whoever needs it. Under the gold standard, money was scarce. That was good news for the owners of moneyi banks, creditors, and the rich in generaland bad news for everyone else. So the Populists demanded a gow ernmenteissued upeople's currency, elastic and cheap, based on the entire wealth of the country" For that, the country needed a central bank. Enter the Fed The central role ofa central bankithe Federal Reserve, or \"the Fed," in the United Statesiis to control the availability of credit and the amount of money in 17 circulation. It does this mainly by buying and selling shortterm government bonds. The details of these open-market operations aren't important; what matters is that they make it easier or harder for banks to borrow from other banks, When it is easy for banks to borrow, they should be willing to make more loans to house- holds and businesses, and to accept lower interest rates. In theory, this allows the Fed to increase lending when the economy needs stimulus and to reduce it when demand is too high. When the Federal Reserve was established in 1913, its mission was set by law as ensuring an \"elastic" cur rency, just as the Populists had called for. The Fed was supposed to end bank panics and crises, and to regulate the supply of credit so that it grew steadily in line with the needs of the economy. Since the big banks couldn't stop the creation of the Fed, they did everything they could to control it. The Fed is unique among govern- ment agencies in that it is legally accountable to the same industry it is supposed to regulate: the Board of Governors that runs the Fed includes members chosen by private banks. And even though the Fed chair is appointed by the President of the United States, that doesn't mean our vote matterseach of the last three Fed chairs has been appointed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, The result is that the Fed is always divided between the interests of the real economythe need to ensure sufcient credit {or the economy to expandand the interests ofnancethe desire to keep credit articially scarce. Most of us ben et from strong growth and low unemployment, even it. that means moderate ination (that is, rising prices or a falling value of money). But nance wants to preserve the value ofmoney at all costs, even it. that means mass unemployment and the waste ofthe economy's produC- tive potential. Unemployment and Inflation For years after World War II, the Fed seemed to have learned its lesson and recognized the importance of keeping unemployment low. For three decades, it was committed to maintaining a low unemployment rate, even at the risk ofination. As a result, for thirty years, prices rose, but unemployment stayed low and incomes rose fastenThis period saw steadily rising wages, and some of the strongest growth in American history. Unemployment is frightening for people who live on their labor. But ination is frightening for people who live on their money. The high ination of the 1960s and 1970s convinced the banks and other money-owners that things had gone too far, and they began pushing for tighter monetary policy. They scored 18 their rst big victory when, under President Carter, Paul Volcker became chairman of the Fed. Volcker was obsessed with reducing wages. To do this, he raised interest rates to unprecedented levels, deliberately pro- voking the deepest recession of postwar history (or at least the worst until the Great Recession). As historian William Greider puts it in Secret; oft/16 DIP/t'f Haw [/16 Federal Reserve Rum the Country, \"Volcker believed that ination would not be securely deieated...until workers and their unions agreed to accept less. If they were not impressed by words, perhaps the liquidation of several million more jobs would convince them," When a delegation oflegislators from farm states came to Volcker to plead for easier money, Greider reports that he bluntly replied, \"Look, your constituents are unhappy; mine aren't." Volcker's constituents were the banks. Under Volcker and his successor Alan Greenspan, \"job insecurity" became a goal of Fed policy instead of something to avoid. Many industries, like steel, never recovered. But for Volcker and Greenspan, the impor- tant thing is that loans are no longer paid back in cheaper dollars. For lenders, the past quarter century has been the best of times. But for borrowershome- owners, students, people with medical bills or who are in between jobs, small businessesit has been a period ot'steadily growing debt burdens. More Debts, More Problems In the current recession the Fed seems to be doing more to support employment, with unconventional policy like quantitative easing, in which the Fed tries to stimulate economic growth by injecting more money into circulation. So why hasn't the Fed been able to x the economy? Some economists think it hasn't really triedthat it is still working for its real constituents in finance, taking advantage of high unemployment to push down wages and prices. Other economists think it's because the Fed can't control the supply ofcredit even when the Fed loosens, banks still won't lend. Still others think that even it. banks are willing to lend, businesses don't want to borrow because there is little demand for their products. For these economists, while scarce credit has been a disaster for the real economy in the past, its not the source oi'our problems todayThere is controversy over how hard it is currently for house holds and businesses to get new loans; but whatever the answer, existing debt remains a huge problem for the majority ot'us who are debtors. lt'monetary policy Can't or won't alleviate that burden, then debtors may have to take a page from Shays's Rebellion and challenge credi tors directly