Ron Paul introduces Bill to abolish Federal Reserve

GovTrack ^

[BlackJack]

H.R. 2755: To abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve...

To abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks, to repeal the Federal Reserve Act, and for other purposes.

[zeugma]

Good post.

[do the dhue]

That and General McAuliffe’s “Nut’s” was the most widely known quotes of WWII. And both came from Bastonge.

[do the dhue]

You say they do effect the supply. I am a gold standard kinda guy for some reason.

[djf]

Section 32, or maybe it’s section 37, of the original Federal Reserve Act allows the Congress of the United States to buy back the Federal Reserve.

All outstanding debt, all assets, all the stock.

For something like 400 million dollars.

[ChicagoHebrew]

I’ll enumerate the failures that have occurred with the Federal Reserve in place, starting with the Great Depression, and we’ll have a grand old time comparing just how dark the sackcloth should be and how deep the pile of ashes is.

The Fed probably did cause the Great Depression. But people forget that, before the Fed, there were severe depressions (called "Panics", and a long depression between 1873 and 1896). The frequency of the Panics is one of the reasons for the Fed's creation.

After the 1970s, the Fed learned from Milton Friedman. It's a Friedman Fed now. Even the liberals on the Fed (Clinton's appointees) are fundamentally Monetarist. They are humna -- but their mistakes are mild and short. That's why recessions today are uncommon and usually mild. Getting rid of the Fed would be disasterous.

[supercat]

Just as democracy has been described as “the worst form of government, except for all the others”, I often find myself thinking about the Fed. Having the Fed more tightly controlled by an honest government would be a good thing, but having it more tightly controlled by the government we actually have probably wouldn’t be.

[ClaireSolt]

Well I don’t think they have much in the way of assets. It is sort of a clearinghouse coop for banks to kind of back each other up, so there won’t be runs. They are regulators. The government’s money is in the treasury. Our money is in the banks.

[ClaireSolt]

All money has value by agreement, even gold. King Midas is the exemplar of the disadvantages of a gold standard. You can’t eat gold. My father was high in financial circles, and he explained to me when we went off the gold standard it was because the money needed to represent all the wealth in America, the cars and homes we count as our net worth, not just our coins.

[Dick Bachert]

Bigun, TY.

I failed to mention that as measured against a REAL dollar in 1913 (when we were saddled with the Fed) that totally unbacked, fiat currency FRAUD (Federal Reserve Accounting Unit Denomintor) is now worth less than 2 CENTS!

At the time John Maynard Keynes was promulgating his
interventionist/statist economic policies during the Roosevelt
administration, a critic pointed out that, in the end, these
policies would, if carried to their illogical conclusions, take
the nation to bankruptcy. Keynes replied that “In the end
we’ll all be dead”. (A variation of the old “Eat, drink and be
merry for tomorrow we die” or the Madam Pompadour classic, “Apres
moi, les deluge”.) Keynes, a notorious and unabashed
homosexual pedophile, was clearly into immediate gratification in
several spheres of his life, physical and economic!

* “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can
confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the
wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of
overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the
currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic
law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not
one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
John Maynard Keynes,
The Economic Consequences of The Peace, 1920

[GoreNoMore]

I do not want a Hillary win, I believe that’s what we are going to get if we cannot find someone to get disgruntled republicans and disgruntled democrats to the poll to vote.

Hillary will win her primary and her disgruntled base will not show up, anyone on the republican side can win and the appearance of it (look at all the ugly name calling on our side) the disgruntled republicans will not show up.

If my only choice is Rudy or McCain, they WILL NOT not beat Hillary (as I feel it is designed this way). I pray for this country with a Hillary win. She will destroy what is left.

Instead of spinning any candidate, reach across to democrats and see if we cannot mend our own personal fences so we can have a country to protect.

It is not the event but the reaction to the event that determines your path.

The event: People like Ron Paul because they feel he has listened and they like what he says.

Your Reaction: Alienate individuals who want their opinions known.

Evaluate: Set the candidates that can pull what is left of this country together and dismiss sterotypes. There are good and bad democrats and there are good and bad republicans. We will not agree on everything but can we find any common ground to start pulling us back together.

Solution: Listen, respect, appreciation, and understanding will go alot further to get Hillary beat.

Ron Paul as crazy as some think would be 1000 percent better than a Hillary win.

I’m probably going to get slamed, but before you do, let it be known Your attitude will be the reason Hillary wins.

[do the dhue]

because the money needed to represent all the wealth in America, the cars and homes we count as our net worth, not just our coins.

That makes a lot of sense. I never had it explained that way. I can swallow that pill.

Now, please allow me to ask what keeps the Federal Reserve in check and in balance?

[do the dhue]

The Fed is private.

I think the Fed is private when it is time to take profits and it is part of the Government when it comes time to pay taxes on those profits.

/sac before y'all take me seriously.

[chesty_puller]

Ron Paul as crazy as some think would be 1000 percent better than a Hillary win.

We have a winner!!

[takenoprisoner]

Some will argue that the FRS brought about the great depression. Others will argue that the FRS is not authorized by the Constitution.

What’s your take?

[NVDave]

Let’s stipulate your assertion as to why the Fed was created - ie, that the Fed was created to avoid panics/depressions.

Has the Fed avoided panics and depressions? No. They have avoided runs on banks by inflating the money supply, just as they did after 9/11 by drastic cuts in the overnight lending rate and injecting a huge wad of liquidity into the money supply, which then brought on the current real estate bubble, which is going to end badly for a large number of people.

So just on the face of a mere performance evaluation, the Fed has failed in their mission, therefore they’re without justification.

Funny you should mention Milton Friedman. Mr. Friedman has said the following things about the Fed in the past:

- the Fed made the Great Depression worse by doing exactly the wrong thing - contracting the money supply, thereby extending the length of the Great Depression.

- The Fed caused the high inflation of the 70’s.

- The Fed inflated the money supply in ‘68 to help get Nixon elected.

The Fed’s track record, coupled with their lack of transparency and their increasing obsession with chasing asset prices rather than monetary stability, makes it quite clear that they’ve failed in their stated mission and they’re now playing rather far afield from the justifications for their founding. Greenspan himself said in Jackson Hole, August 2005, that the Fed’s decisions are “...increasingly being driven by asset class valuations...” and this should cause everyone a lot of lost sleep.

The market should decide how to value asset classes, not the Fed.

[Moonman62]

I don't have the chops to argue in full, however, do you not recall the $75Billion in extra currency that was printed by the Fed to "prepare for Y2K"?

I do recall the Fed printed up some extra currency in case there were Y2K problems, which would have prevented banking panics. I don't recall the amount, but if it never made it into circulation because there were no problems then it doesn't matter.

Also there was another expansion in the late 90s by Clinton to the tune of (I think) $25 or $50 Billion. The .bomb happened in mid-2000 if I recall correctly.

This is the first I heard of that, but if you have more information then let me know.

Greenspan made his "irrational exuberance" speech in December of 1996. At the time he was referring to companies like IBM and other DOW components. The internet stocks really hadn't taken off yet. Greenspan started hiking rates in 1999, and the stock market continued to climb until March of 2000, which is about the same time the Microsoft antitrust decision was made.

Around October of 1999, the Fed announced the Special Liquidity Facility, which the Fed would have used to buy assets to keep the financial system liquid if there had been a Y2K problem. Of course, it was never used.

Over the past seven years I have seen numerous claims that the Fed put massive amounts of money into the supply for Y2K, or as a cause of the stock market rise in the 1990's. Nobody's been able to back that up, and I've looked myself.

[Tax Government]

Finally. This bill is exactly what every conservative — no every American — should support.

If you like the idea of the Federal Reserve counterfeiting money and slowly impoverishing America, then don’t support the bill.

[Swordfished]

It’s too bad that it takes Ron Paul to have the balls to take on this issue...

You're right.
What gets me is these faux-conservative posters which have no idea what conservatism is all about. Seems they were 'born-again' yesterday. Very easy to confuse them with groupies.

[Nova]

"A most excellent post! I hope that many will read it but I doubt they will."

I've read it a couple times, but I'm still not entirely clear on it. Too much power being waged in an un-fully-disclosed manner.

[ClaireSolt]

Competition among the banks, each seeking its own self interest. I suppose they have some minimal government oversight, but interferance by the president is considered really bad form. I think it is a very transparent system. Each bank balances its books every night and transmits the info to the Fed. It watches to see that they don’t get overextended. That’s the real purpose. It sets rates at which they can lend each other money. This is done by boards made up of bankers. It is also divided into regions to prevent over centralization. It is just capitalism. Banks have to serve customers to stay in business so they push for the best deals. AS they ae the ones with the money, that’s where the real power is, not in the Fed.