Ancient Map Reveals Existence Of The Lost 'Cincinnati Federal Reserve'

The St. Louis Federal Reserve published a new batch of archival Federal Reserve materials on Thursday, and we came across an intriguing document.

Here is a map, dating from either 1913 or 1914, showing an original proposal for nine Federal Reserve Districts.

One of them was to be based in Cincinnati.

It would have covered Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

Check it out:

It was presumed that Cincinnati would get it over Cleveland. Indeed, it got the 4th-most votes in one of the final rounds of voting!

!

Today, of course there are 12 Fed Districts, and none of them is based in Cincinnati.

There are lots of theories why the Queen City — as well as other places that lost out including Portland and Baltimore — came up short. Michael McAvoy of SUNY-Oneonta has documented the accusations of clout and favoritism that followed the final choices.

But he concludes that ultimately the decisions were made as objectively as possible based on the best interests of the country.