Free Republic

Am I directly or indirectly responsible for the national debt? This information is sent so that an exchange through dialogue be made possible. Almost every day, many people keep saying that the system is corrupt, the system needs change, the system, the system and so on. Recently it was discovered that this system is an accounting matrix called double-entry bookkeeping. The sole purpose of this accounting system is for PROFIT through a variety of methods such as interest, taxes, etc. Here is how it begins. All my life I've heard that we receive value for the income taxes we pay...

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen defended the central bank’s independence Wednesday from Republican lawmakers who are pushing for major changes in how the central bank operates and how regulators oversee the nation’s banking system. During a hearing that stretched over four hours, GOP lawmakers repeatedly challenged Yellen’s handling of the economy and her leadership in implementing the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, a measure that President Donald Trump and Republicans have vowed to overhaul. Republicans pointedly told Yellen that she should realize that changes are underway with Republicans in control of the White House and both the House and Senate. “After eight...

A senior Republican lawmaker is putting Federal Reserve System boss Janet Yellen on notice: There's a new sheriff in town, so America and American interests had better come first from now on. Citing the victory of President Donald Trump, Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the vice chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Yellen demanding an end to secretive negotiations with unaccountable foreign entities plotting to impose ever more burdensome regulations on Americans. In the letter, the congressman calls such scheming “unacceptable” and demands that it be stopped.Whether knowingly or not, Representative McHenry's letter took aim...

There’s a predictable checklist for meltdowns in socialist countries, and it’s playing out with tragic regularity in Venezuela. Nationalize agriculture? Check. Start government-enforced rationing when the food supply dries up? Check. Seal the border when people try to flee to buy food elsewhere? Check. The next step, and usually one of the last before total collapse, is runaway inflation. That’s what we’re starting to see in Venezuela. Rapid inflation, called hyperinflation by economists when it gets really bad, is one of the deadliest poisons for any economy. The spiral is usually triggered when a government prints too much money to...

Taking aim at the Federal Reserve's politically motivated manipulation of the U.S. economy, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted the controversial central bank's artificially low interest rates. He also denounced the “very false economy” propped up by Fed monetary gimmicks. Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton, though, hit back immediately, saying Trump should not malign or even comment on the increasingly unpopular institution that controls America's monetary system.Trump's comments, which sparked national headlines, came earlier this week at an Ohio campaign stop in response to a question from a reporter about possible interest rate hikes by the Fed later this month. “They're...

Facing its best chance of passage ever under the new GOP-controlled Congress and the incoming Trump administration, wildly popular legislation to open up the Federal Reserve's books, known as “Audit the Fed,” was just re-introduced in the 115th Congress. The bill, sponsored by hundreds of lawmakers in the House and the Senate, would force the obsessively secretive and increasingly controversial central bank to submit to a full government audit. But the Fed and its apologists do not plan to allow a real audit without a tough fight.The legislation, first introduced many years ago by constitutional champion and former congressman Ron...

The dollar’s upward march has sent the euro currency to its lowest level in 14 years, easing the financial pressure on traveling Americans but giving European exporters a boost. The euro, used by 19 countries, was down 0.1 percent at $1.0390 late-afternoon Tuesday, having earlier fallen to $1.0352, its lowest level since early 2003. Over recent days, the euro’s descent to the psychologically important level of one euro per dollar, has accelerated. A major factor has been the prospect of more interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve following a quarter-point increase in its benchmark rate last week. Higher...

Federal Reserve officials, amid signs that the U.S. economy soon could shed its long period of stagnation, approved the first interest rate hike in a year Wednesday and said it foresees three more increases next year. The stock market reacted calmly, while the dollar and bond yields rose.

Former Major League slugger Jose Canseco is dangling himself as the home run pick for Federal Reserve chair — or at least ambassador to Cuba. The big league lobbying — presumably a joke — comes as Canseco, 52, praised President-elect Donald Trump for considering former Mets manager Bobby Valentine as the ambassador to Japan. “Hey little buddy @realDonaldTrump good pick on Bobby for Japan. I would be open to Ambassador of Cuba job or Fed Chair. See u soon,” the slugger began.

New York Fed president backs gradual interest-rate hikes Without mentioning President-elect Donald Trump by name, Federal Reserve officials on Monday warned that the incoming administration’s fiscal policy must be intelligently designed to spur the economy while maintaining a rainy-day fund to help the economy withstand another downturn. “Smart” government spending and tax reform could help the economy grow, said Chicago Fed President Charles Evans in a speech to the Executives Club of Chicago, according to Reuters.

Donald Trump met with former banker John Allison (shown) on Monday in a meeting that was largely ignored by the mainstream media. It remains unclear whether Allison was being interviewed for the job of secretary of the Treasury or was just giving Trump some advice from a free market perspective.Either way, it’s a breath of fresh air in an era where statism and excessive hubris (the idea that mere politicians and economists can guide, even stimulate a $20-trillion-dollar economy with monetary policy) has reigned for decades.Right after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina in 1971, Allison joined...

Former Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher recently gave a speech identifying the Federal Reserve’s easy money/low interest rate policies as a source of the public anger that propelled Donald Trump into the White House. Mr. Fisher is certainly correct that the Fed’s policies have “skewered” the middle class. However, the problem is not specific Fed policies, but the very system of fiat currency managed by a secretive central bank.Federal Reserve-generated increases in money supply cause economic inequality. This is because, when the Fed acts to increase the money supply, well-to-do investors and other crony capitalists are the first...

President Trump will have a choice opportunity that few if any presidents have had — the immediate chance to fill two openings on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. Only five of the board’s seven seats are now filled, a fact that has received scant attention in the press. Yet finding the right nominees will be important in setting the stage for monetary reforms needed to end the age of fiat money and put paid to the “false economy” of which Mr. Trump warned. We are only one stop on the organ known as the “Great Mentioner,” but...

"Forget all that talk about Janet Yellen stepping down if Donald Trump becomes president: The Fed chair told Congress on Thursday she's not leaving."

Donald Trump’s surprise election victory has helped solidify expectations for an interest rate increase next month by the U.S. Federal Reserve — but may have complicated a decision for the European Central Bank, which faces a difficult choice over more stimulus. For the ECB, the issue is what to do about its bond-buying program, which pumps new money into Europe’s struggling economy each month to try to accelerate growth and inflation. The Fed and the ECB — two of the world’s most important central banks — will be making its policy decisions before Trump is inaugurated Jan. 20, while still...

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari on Wednesday said he sees continued sluggish growth ahead for the U.S. economy, unless lawmakers and the president “get going” on policies to boost productivity and population. Kashkari, who was a senior Treasury official under George W. Bush during the financial crisis, avoided direct comment on the policies or person of newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican who campaigned on the promise of cutting taxes and lifting economic growth, or the Republican-controlled Congress. “The Congress has said to the Fed we are going to leave you alone to set monetary policy...

Video:http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/economics/item/24276-trump-exposing-federal-reserve-huge-favor In this video, The New American magazine's Alex Newman explains what a yuuuge (or huge) service GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump performed by exposing the Federal Reserve and its manipulation of the economy. From touting gold and sound money, to highlighting the damage done by artificially low interest rates and Fed stock-market intervention, Trump has hit on some of the key reasons why this shadowy institution is so dangerous and harmful to America. Trump is also a proponent of "Audit the Fed," legislation backed by a massive movement that seeks to properly audit the central bank. By contrast, Democrat...

My country club locker room is a fascinating 19th hole observatory where human nature and intelligence often come into conflict. Almost all of my golfing buddies are risk takers by nature and many of them are gamblers — not just in the card room but also in the casinos in Las Vegas. Having spent some time in Sin City myself in my early 20s as one of the first blackjack counters, I was, and still am, most familiar with odds and the impossibility of beating the “House” in any game other than blackjack over a long period of time. Still,...

U.S. factory production fell last month amid cutbacks in appliances, home electronics and machinery, threatening hopes for a manufacturing rebound after two previous months of gains. The Federal Reserve said Thursday factory production dropped 0.4 percent in August, after an increase of 0.4 percent in July. A broader measure of industrial output, which includes mines and utilities, also dropped 0.4 percent. Manufacturers have struggled for the past 18 months with sluggish global growth, the strong dollar, and reluctance among U.S. businesses to spend more on large machinery and equipment. That has dragged down factory output 0.4 percent from a year...

On Monday republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fired political shots at the Federal Reserve saying, “she is keeping them artificially low to get Obama retired,” while referring to the interest rate policy the Fed has taken under the leadership of Janet Yellen.