Ce travail de thèse est consacré à l’étude de la participation de James Laurence Laughlin (1850-19133) à l’unification monétaire et bancaire américaine de 1870 à 1913. L’histoire des débat monétaires et bancaires américains de la fin du dix-neuvième et du début du vingtième sièclen’accorde pas une place importante à cet auteur pourtant incontournable. Laughlin devient unéconomiste académique réputé en tant que premier Head Professor à l’université de Chicago et en fondant le Journal of Political Economy en 1892. Il s’affirme comme expert économique grâce à son expérience de money doctoring à Saint-Domingue en 1894 puis sa participation à la commission monétaire d’Indianapolis en 1897-98. Le rapport final de cette commission rédigé par Laughlin est utilisé pour l’écriture du Gold Standard Act voté en 1900 qui institue légalement un système d’étalon-or aux États-Unis. Par la suite, il prend part à la conception du Federal Reserve Act de 1913, aux côtés de son ancien étudiant Henry Parker Willis. La théorie monétaire de Laughlin se veut être une critique de la théorie quantitative de la monnaie et une défense de la mise en place d’un système d’étalon-or. Pour ce faire, il mobilise des éléments issus de la théorie des auteurs de la Banking School anglaise. Il explique alors la formation des prix par des déterminants non monétaires et inclut le crédit et la spéculation à sa théorie en distinguant un crédit « normal » et un crédit « anormal ». / This Ph.D. dissertation studies James Laurence Laughlin (1850-1913) participation in the American monetary and banking unification. The history of American monetary and banking debates of the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century does not place emphasis on this author while he is unavoidable. He becomes a renowned academic economist by being the first Head Professor of the University of Chicago and the founder of the Journal of Political Economy in 1892. He also acquires the status of economic expert by doing a money doctoring in Santo Domingo in 1894 and by participating in the Indianapolis Monetary Commission in 1897-98. The final report of this commission written by Laughlin had been used to write the Gold Standard Act, passed in 1900 and establishing a gold standard system in the United States. Subsequently, he gets involved in designing the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 alongside his former student Henry Parker Willis. Laughlin’s theory is meant to be a critique of the quantity theory of money. He includes elements from the English Banking School authors’ theory. He explains the formation of prices by non-monetary determinants and includes credit and speculation in his theory by distinguishing a “normal” credit and an “abnormal” credit.

The thesis deals with relation between central bank independence and accountability. The relation is examined on example of quantitative easing implemented in the period 2005 - 2016 by the European central bank and the Federal Reserve System. From the theoretical and practical point of view the thesis proves that the relation between central bank independence and accountability are influenced by the specification of targets of monetary policy to a great extent. The thesis also proves that the specific definition of both central bank independence and accountability influenced the characteristics of quantitative resp. credit easing. Moreover, such monetary policy can potentially endanger the independence of both central banks in many ways. Thus, the implementation of quantitative easing itself and its potential consequences evidences that the contemporary conception of central bank independence and accountability is insufficient and needs to be reviewed.

The aim of this thesis is to document the importance of liquidity resources of central banks during banking panics and financial crises and analysis of the development of LLR function. We examined three historical examples: the banking panic of 1866, the Great Depression and the current financial crisis, and we focused on the interaction between the demand for liquidity on the one hand and the supply of liquidity by central banks on the other. On the wide historical background we also analysed the changes in the function of LLR. We present that a restrictive monetary policy during financial market distortions may lead to further disturbances and cause serious recession. The analysis of the BoE during 1866 and of the FED between 2007 and 2009, on the contrary shows that the expansionary stance and considerably endogenous liquidity supply are able to reduce financial market's distortions and mitigate possible recession. Analysis of FED's reaction also indicated that should the LLR remain efficient, central banks must expand their instruments portfolio.

The master´s thesis is about the conceptions of the Czech National Bank, the Federal Reserve System, the European Central Bank and People's Bank of China. It focuses on the comparison of these conceptions with the created universal model of the central bank and its parameters, and finds out that the selected central banks are lot away from this model. Important is also a perspective of the Czech National Bank after joining the euro area and the fact that at this moment her role will be replaced by the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank, compared with the Federal Reserve and the People's Bank deviates the least from its inflation target and therefore is pretty close to reach a price stability. However, ECB clearly financed some government debts, and that is inconsistent with the law. In conclusion can be noted that the central banks of the Czech Republic, the United States and the euro area reach the high level of freedom and are independent of the other components of state power and vice versa People's Bank of China remains strongly dependent on the executive power.

The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken by the Federal Reserve System in response to the 2007 financial crisis that was later joined by economic crisis. It analyzes effects caused by modification of existing programs, creation of new credit programs, support of systemically important institutions by the Fed and programs of outright purchase of selected assets on the open market. The thesis also examines the behavior of the Fed in setting of a target interest rate in longer term, from 2000 to 2011. The thesis verifies the validity of the Taylor rule of monetary policy by using regression analysis. Appendix at the end of the thesis emphasizes the importance of the U.S. dollar in the current international monetary system and the associated implications for the external stability of the U.S. economy.

This thesis concerned with certain problems in the U.S. financial market during the financial crisis. In the theoretical part of this thesis, I deal with the formation of U.S. banking and regulation and supervision until its present form. In this part of the work are described in detail circumstances that lead to foundation of the Federal Reserve system, and also the origins of Great Depression. The practical part is focused on the analysis of the causes of the global financial crisis. Especially the U.S. real estate market, asset securitization and credit rating agencies. In the final part of this work are described in detail the measures taken by the U.S. government in the form of law "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act".