Money–Banking Confusion Built Regulation

The Constitution empowers Congress to coin money but says nothing about banking, while restricting states’ money powers. That ambiguity, plus the Civil War’s need to monetize federal debt, set the U.S. on a unique path of heavy, layered bank regulation and quasi‑public utility treatment. — It links foundational legal design and war finance to today’s moral‑hazard‑prone system, reframing reform as a constitutional‑path‑dependence problem.