This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, April 4, 2014.

I'm Caleb Brown.

One hundred years ago when Congress created the Federal Reserve,

it was designed to provide an elastic currency and prevent banking panics.

The Great Depression, the Great Inflation, and the panic of 2008, however,

Marr, the Fed's record.

Texas Republican Representative Kevin Brady wants to create a centennial monetary commission.

He spoke at a Cato Institute Capitol Hill briefing in February.

I can't think of a better time to be having this discussion than right now. I took over the

Joint Economic Committee a number of years ago for House and Senate Republicans and

my goal was to to revitalize it back into a free market think take on the economy, on the budget,

on how we move forward in economic freedom.

Thanks to great staff and good members serving on it, we've had some success in doing that.

When I took it over, I tasked my economic team with this challenge.

If the experts believe the 1800s was the British century,

the 1900s was America century, those same experts predict this century as China's. So what do we need to do today to make sure

that America remains the strongest economy of the world through the 21st century? How do

we have a second great American century economically?

Well, there's no question fiscal policy plays a key role in it.

You got to get your taxes right. You got to get your financial house in order.

You got to have the right regulatory schemes, no question about.

But what your central bank does, the monetary policy, that's equally important, and that's

...