Posted on 11/19/2010 12:54:10 AM PST by Scanian
At Tea Party rallies and at other get-togethers over the last two years, one could often see placards reading "End the Fed." That also happens to be the title of a worthy book by Rep. Ron Paul. If one googles those three words within quotation marks, one should get nigh on a million hits. One might conclude that there's a movement afoot in America to abolish our central bank, the Federal Reserve.
Why are folks getting so exercised about this secretive quasi-governmental agency?
One reason folks are riled at the Fed is that the Fed sets interest rates, and rates have been at historic lows for much of the last decade. This has really hurt savers. As we write, the highest rate nationwide for a one-year certificate of deposit is 1.35%. Such a rate would require a goodly chunk of change, and yet it doesn't even keep pace with the Fed's target inflation rate of 2%. The Fed's low interest rates are partly to blame for the real estate boom, which led to inflated home prices, which led to the real estate bust, which led to the financial crisis of 2008. So the Fed is at least partly responsible for the flood of foreclosures as well as the collapse of home valuations. In Las Vegas, 80 percent of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages. Thank the Fed, Nevada.
But the reason folks are truly frightened by the Fed is because the Fed has been busy "printing money." Since the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed has created $1.7 trillion of new money (that we know about). Also, the Fed has just embarked on yet another round of "quantitative easing," or QE2 -- weasel words for money-printing. So in addition to "end the Fed," we now hear "sink the QE2." QE2 is the Fed's Hail Mary pass, according to analyst Peter Schiff.
“End the Fed”? What should we use instead? Gold coins and Euros? No, we should have a monetary rule and stop inflating in an attempt to lower unemployment.
how about let free market to set the interest rate
“For now, ending the Fed may be a bridge too far. And we may actually need the Fed for years to come just to undo all the harm the Fed itself has done over the last century. But first we need to spay the Fed, put it on a leash, and take it to obedience school. We can’t just allow the Fed to print money like it knows what it is doing.”
“No, we should have a monetary rule and stop inflating in an attempt to lower unemployment.”
I think when people say end the Fed, that’s what they mean. Just about Any fixed rule will work.
This is fact: The more Liberal Free Trade Globalist one is...the more likely they support the Federal Reserve.
Its time to do away with the Fed. We all need to get back to a true market American ecnonmy....and eliminating the Fed is a start
Yes. Eliminate the central bank completely and return the minting of money to its rightful place: the government, not a consortium of private banks.
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