Amid the The big breakthrough took place in 1951. For decades before then, the Fed functioned, to a large extent, as an adjunct of the Treasury and the After major political battles culminated in a March 1951 agreement, now known as the Treasury-Fed accord, the Fed ensured that it would no longer be required to do the bidding of the Treasury and White House, but would operate according to its own lights, as an independent central bank. It could raise short-term interest rates to curb inflation if it deem ...