Gold reserves in the Bank of England also grew over ten times from 1930 to 1940, but it was still less than the amount the U.S. had. The Bank of France also saw over 200 tonnes of gold get transferred to New York following the raising of prices in America. Gove Griffith Johnson, an economist and author said: "One may be skeptical of the wisdom with which monetary instruments will be used, but the possibility of abuse extends throughout the whole sphere of governmental activity and is a risk which must be assumed under a democratic or any other form of government." Prior to Gold Reserve Act 1934, the Federal Reserve System was in trouble as the Great Depression had swept over the country and people looked to the Fed for solutions. Some people claim that "market failure" was not the cause of this trouble. Instead, they place the blame for the years of the Great Contraction (from 1929 to 1933) on the mismanagement of the monetary policy by the central bank. That explains why Congress handed over the Federal Reserve's powers to the Treasury. Johnson explains that the Treasury's gold policy "was an essential instrument for producing desired political aims". In other words, the Federal Reserve System had served more as a "technical instrument for effecting the Treasury’s policies", according to Johnson. Roosevelt justified Gold Reserve Act 1934 by saying that "Since there was not enough gold to pay all holders of gold obligations, ... the Government should in the interest of justice allow none to be paid in gold." Since the Central Banking Act of 1935, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to purchase and/or sell U.S. government securities in the open market in order to determine the stock of money in the U.S. The Fed Board also gained its power over member bank reserve requirements as a result. Since the FOMC was determining the quantity of money in circulation, the quantity of gold in the system did not affect the stock of money in the U.S. economy. Due to the Banking Act, the secretary of the Treasury was no longer the Fed's Board of Governors. However, being a chairman gave the secretary enough power to influence the Fed. Treasury managers wished to halt monetary expansion in 1936 by stagnating gold and increasing reserve requirements. For all intents and purposes, this led to a freeze of the monetary system and U.S. economy. The Treasury began its own gold sterilization policy in order to stop inflation from potentially increasing due to an increase in inflow of gold into the U.S. soon after the Fed enacted the same policy.