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Paul Warburg, the émigré banker who in the early 20th century urged the U.S. to found a central bank, would be disappointed today. Although the Federal Reserve was indeed created in 1913, Warburg wrote in his memoirs that he hoped his creation would gain broad, bipartisan acceptance so that it might become a national monument, “like the old cathedrals of Europe.”

These days, alas, the Fed is beleaguered, its balance sheet swollen, its reputation tarnished. “The Myth of Independence,” by Sarah Binder and Mark Spindel, suggests…