Throughout that century the Fed has enjoyed broad bipartisan support. That's another way of saying the Fed never appeared on the political radar until Ron Paul broke the rules by actually campaigning against it in 2007.

The Fed was supposed to provide stability to the financial sector and the economy at large. We are supposed to believe it has been a wonderful success. A glance at the headlines over the past five years renders an unkind verdict on this rarely examined assumption.

Last year we observed another important centenary – the 100-year anniversary of the publication of Ludwig von Mises's pathbreaking book, The Theory of Money and Credit, written when the great economist was just 31.