Posted on 12/30/2018 10:11:53 AM PST by MNDude
Q: Did we have a national currency before the Federal Reserve act of 1913?
A: Yes.
Q: Has the actual buying power of the US Dollar declined consistently more rapidly since the above act was passed than before?
A: Yes.
By the bye: We have many STATUTES (since you like capitals, and apparently just being a STATUTE makes you feel all comfy-cozy about it) on the books - especially ones infringing upon the Second Amendment - that are detrimental to the nation.
1913 was a notorious year for damaging this nation.
Progessivism is just a euphemism for an American style of communism. The very fact that the FRA was produced under Wilson and during a period that produced the IRS/FIT and direct election of Senators ought to give one pause.
Yet one more crackpot article that will tickle the itching ears of those who love conspiracy theories.
And where is this theft you speak of?
” but it is interesting these interest rates and manipulations always take place behind closed doors”
And yet somehow we know that the Fed funds rate was just raised a quarter of a percent to 2.5%.
Did they forget to keep this hidden from us?
“the FED then lends the money back to the Treasury”
They “lend” the money?
So... how is it that all income earned by the Fed above salaries and basic expenses goes to the Treasury?
Did they somehow forget to collect on this “loan”?
The rest of that post is some of the most convoluted nonsense I’ve seen. The Fed issues exactly zero debt and yet you come up with a gem like this:
“One can never pay off the Federal Reserve Note Debt!”
The Federal Reserve is THE reason for the slow march of Socialism in the U.S. Its through the debt/currency that the LEFTISTS in the US are able to fund the ever expansion of government!!! Until the majority of Conservatives realize this and FORCE the government to either dismantle the Federal Reserve or allow a competing currency (allowable to settle ALL payments both private and public including taxes) then we will NEVER be able to defeat the Leftists, Marxists, Socialists, Communists that have taken over academia, Hollywood, Big Business, Industrial Military Complex, etc....WAKE UP Folks!! Wake UP! Read: The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin
“the Federal Reserve and our printed, fiat currency and the massive debt they generate”
Congress alone creates our national debt. The Fed doesn’t generate a single dollar of it, nor of any other form of debt.
They do buy and sell debt created by Congress in their Open Market Operations in order to adjust the amount of high-powered money available in the banking system. That’s their primary job, which unsurprisingly never gets mentioned by the conspiracy crowd, who appear to know absolutely nothing about it.
Our currency is entirely fiat firstly because Congress voted to demonetize silver in 1963 and the Silver Certificate issue ended.
Secondly, President Nixon abrogated the Bretton Woods Agreement in August 1971 which ended the dollar’s last link to gold.
Neither Kennedy nor Nixon nor Congress let the Fed vote on these decisions. Because they don’t get a vote. They are a monetary authority not a governing body.
An alternative to the Federal Reserve is SIMPLE.
Once you get past all the blah this, blah that.
Competition and Transparency.
The U.S. Treasury prints U.S. Notes along with U.S. Federal Reserve Notes.
FRN cost 3%.
US Notes cost nearly 0%.
Which would you use?
Mixed institution? Not really.
The 7 government appointed members of the Fed BoG control it absolutely — it IS the US central bank. Period.
They can do whatever they think is best, even if it’s terribly wrong-headed and includes, say, bailing out idiot banks and other lenders that should have been allowed to fail.
They tried that once, hopefully never again. They can’t do much against a Congress and President who want to screw over taxpayers and bondholders of bankrupt automakers.
If the Fed didn’t have their stupid “employment” mandate, they could have leaned against the spending on bankrupt automakers. Instead, they supported it. It saved a few jobs that wouldn’t have been lost anyway had the assets been sold off in BK court to another automaker.
The Fed is really not much good at their job, perhaps because they still think that low unemployment rates lead to inflation, so they muck around with rates that they should leave to the market. They’re always conflicted — inflation versus jobs/growth.
All while trying to unwind all of the MBS crap, etc. that they bought under Jug-Ears in their pursuit of “stability” and now trying to not raise rates “too much.” They dug their own, essentially mandated hole.
I don’t think I could go for the Hamilton/Washington model/solution today as that would mean who? Goldman-Sachs?
Better to change the Fed mandate to purely economic growth, with some sort of very vague proviso that only inflation over 3% (or whatever, pick your rate) is even worth worrying about.
Yes, you can have 5% growth with next to no inflation. Growth and prosperity and the resulting innovation drive down prices all by themselves.
If we assume some inflation, 2 or 3% devastates bondholders over 20-30 years. Turns the entire national debt into relative peanuts in 30 years — and we’ve already been chugging along at 2% for 2 decades.
Long bonds (30 years) are not something I own or would want to own.
What happens to the profit generated from this scheme?
Ah, I was making a point with my CAPS, I’m sure you got it.
You’ll notice that nobody has taken exception to any of the points I made or facts I pointed out. To include you.
The garbage article that is the basis of the original post of this thread is still garbage and should be deleted, it’s total nonsense and junk.
I hate Wilson. He was a disaster.
As I said, the FRA was worded inappropriately, no doubt because the progressives wanted the Fed to sound like some sort of private company, which it most certainly wasn’t and has never been.
The IRS goes back to 50 years before Wilson in various forms. I have no problem with the FIT other than that it should be a flat 10% or less.
The 17th Amendment absolutely should be repealed. Nothing about Wilson gives me pause, he makes me want to retch.
No United States Notes have been issued since January 1971.
It’s everywhere the Federal Reserve can be found.
Though your question reeks of something unmentionable. A similar question would be “Can you produce evidence of government incompetence?”
Nevertheless, take this just for starters:
“Regarding the Great Depression, … we did it. We’re very sorry. … We won’t do it again.” Ben Bernanke, November 8, 2002, in a speechOffsite link given at “A Conference to Honor Milton Friedman … On the Occasion of His 90th Birthday.”
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great_depression
I think that you’re missing this idiot’s point, such as it is.
His idea is that the Treasury should start printing US notes once again.
But, neither US notes nor FRNs have any “cost” other than the cost of printing, which is the same and very small.
Neither is redeemable for gold or silver. There’s no point to doing it.
This might make sense in you’re Maduro in Venezuela printing new gold-backed bolivars, but nobody would believe you.
That poor slob can’t get anyone to print currency for him at all. The entire lot of a print run isn’t worth the cost of it. Seize the entire run of brand-new “bolivars”? Eh, why bother? It’s only worth about 10 cents.
Kind of like the worth of this thread, based, such as it is on a totally bogus article.
The problem faced by opinion holders who are at once well-intentioned and unaware is knowledge of the first rule of the Federal Reserve, which is to lie.
The consequence of their lying is a concealment of the process.
This is why the Fed insists on secrecy and refuses to be audited.
“It’s everywhere the Federal Reserve can be found.”
In other words you can’t produce a single example. Not a surprise.
“Regarding the Great Depression, … we did it. We’re very sorry. … We won’t do it again.”
Yes, and you haven’t the faintest idea of what Bernanke meant by that quote because to do so you would need to know what his mentors Milton Friedman & Anna Schwartz wrote about “The Great Contraction” in their magnum opus ‘A Monetary History of the United States’.
They didn’t blame the Fed for causing the Depression, they faulted the 1930s Fed for paralysis as banks collapsed from runs and for failing to provide massive amounts of liquidity to halt the resulting deflation.
Bernanke took those lessons to heart and in 2008 the Fed began providing huge amounts of money to banks that were under pressure from the collapse their mortgage paper.
Lying to get money from someone else is stealing.
The Fed’s lies from the beginning evolved into manipulation causing great financial loss to others but gains for themselves. That’s the Great Depression.
Your example of 2008 is possibly a better example of the Fed stealing from us. As you said, they “provided huge amounts of money to banks” in the form of bailouts totaling about 24 trillion dollars.
They won’t tell us where the money is or who received it.
“Lying to get money from someone else is stealing.”
And you haven’t provided a single example.
“The Fed’s lies from the beginning evolved into manipulation causing great financial loss to others but gains for themselves”
Provide an example of one such lie. All you have do is make accusations that you can’t back up.
” That’s the Great Depression.”
The Great Depression was monetary deflation caused by the collapse of a third of the nation’s banks. Maybe you should find some subject that you actually know something about.
“Your example of 2008 is possibly a better example of the Fed stealing from us.”
And what did they steal from you? This is just another unfounded accusation, apparently your one true talent. Is making unproven accusations okay with your “faith”? Asking for a friend.
“As you said, they “provided huge amounts of money to banks” in the form of bailouts totaling about 24 trillion dollars. They won’t tell us where the money is or who received it.”
They told us plenty of times. TARP. QE. They monetized Treasury paper by purchasing bonds from banks. It’s exactly what Friedman and Schwartz said that the 1930s Fed should have done to halt the deflation. They purchase bonds from commercial banks to give them liquidity and keep them from failing and setting in motion a system collapse. Stuff you know nothing about because you basically know nothing about banking or the bond market and the role of a lender of last resort.
You mean when Bernanke was asked by the Senate under oath if he would say where the 24 trillion went and his answer was “No!”
Why is the Fed so secretive? From the beginning?
What are they hiding?
There is no such thing as “Federal Reserve Note Debt”. The Fed doesn’t issue debt. They buy and sell debt, usually Treasury paper for the purpose of adjusting loanable funds in the banking system.
“What happens to the profit generated from this scheme?”
Any income above basic operating expenses goes to the US Treasury. The Fed’s income comes from interest on their enormous bond holdings. But they don’t actually own the bonds. They use them for monetary management.
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