Based on our readings on the U.S. financial system covering the period from about the end of Jackson’s presidency through 1914, what markets and institutions that we have studied resulted in a national market (with some exceptions in the South)?

Most of the readings can be found online, here are the 3 main questions that need to be answered:
It seems clear that the performance of the U.S. financial system through about 1914, though it periodically experienced manias, panics, and crashes, also was a key factor of the amazing overall American economic growth.

It would therefore seem surprising to think that the problems of transactions costs , asymmetric information, and agents working for the owners did not have to be addressed relatively successfully at the earlier stages through 1914. You will write a short essay #2 that addresses how, and how well, our financial system addressed these problems in the absence of a primacy of bank loans, answering the following questions:

1. Based on our readings on the U.S. financial system covering the period from about the end of Jackson’s presidency through 1914, what markets and institutions that we have studied resulted in a national market (with some exceptions in the South)?

2. How could these developments address and (apparently) adequately overcome the problems of transactions costs and asymmetric information in an era where bank loans were not the predominant methods of industrial finance?

3. Are there any lessons in this for our current system? (This section can be brief.)

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