Free Republic

Now that the dust has settled on the elections, the time has come (or so some of the punditry in the media assure us) to set aside political acrimony and unite under the new leadership of President-elect Donald Trump and the new House and Senate. Although it’s far from clear what President Trump will choose to prioritize, now that he will face the realities of entrenched political interests in Washington instead of his fired-up political base on the hustings, it seems at least possible that he will show much more sympathy for certain constitutionalist and Americanist causes — such as...

The portion of the federal debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress plummeted by $56,758,000,000 on March 15 hitting its lowest level of 2017, according to the Daily Treasury Statement. On that same day, the federal debt hit its legal limit, according to the same Daily Treasury Statements. For the 15 days since then, according to the Treasury’s statements, the debt subject to the limit has been frozen at $19,808,747,000,000—approximately $25 million below the new legal limit. The debt was able to hit its legal limit—even on a day when it was plunging dramatically—because when the...

In a move that Democrats in the committee fought very hard to resist, a house panel has approved a legislation that will allow a government watchdog audit the federal reserve's spending. Democrats in the committee were firmly against the bill.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said Bostic's appointment "is an historic step forward that is long overdue. In its century of existence, the Fed's ranks have lacked the kind of diversity — of race, gender, background and ideas — that reflects the wide spectrum of Americans' experiences and economic realities." Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, also issued a statement applauding the appointment of Bostic as the first black and first openly gay regional Fed president.

Raphael Bostic, a former Obama administration housing official, was named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, becoming the first African-American selected to lead one of the 12 regional Fed banks in the institution’s century of existence. Mr. Bostic, a 50-year-old professor of public policy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, will take over June 5, the Atlanta Fed said Monday. He succeeds Dennis Lockhart, who retired at the end of February after a decade of service, and his appointment was approved by the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors and the Fed board of governors, the...

Arizona came one step closer to recognizing gold and silver as legal tender within its sovereign borders when a bill to that effect was passed by a committee of the State Senate. By a vote of 4-3, the Republican majority passed HB 2014, which would "exempt from gross income the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another" and redefines legal tender to include "specie," that is to say, "coins having precious metal content.”In plain English, this proposal would provide a way for Arizonans to buy and sell gold and silver without having to treat it as a capital...

The Federal Reserve gives us the freedom to buy things now that we would otherwise have to wait for.In looking at the Federal Reserve, it is important to note that this is a money system, not just a group of people sitting in a conference room controlling everything having to do with the US dollar. The Fed is a system just like the government of the US is a system. What that means is that no one controls it, and that it is much bigger than any one person or group of people could ever control. They can guide it,...

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...