First person I've heard use that term in decades...
Posted on 04/29/2011 2:34:22 AM PDT by Scanian
An unprecedented press conference was held in Washington on Wednesday – one that should have been convened a long time ago. And no, it wasn't the one to announce publication of Barack Obama's birth certificate, but rather the first of its kind by the US Federal Reserve. Believe it or not, the Fed has never before made itself directly answerable to the fourth estate for its monetary policy decisions. Accountability and explanation have instead been pursued through official statements, speech-giving, congressional committees and selective background briefings.
After nearly 100 years at the helm of the US economy, the Fed has finally decided to join the modern world. By common agreement, the occasion was a success. Ben Bernanke, the chairman, gave a reasonably good account of himself. But in the end, the appearance was less significant for what he said than what it stood for.
Central banking has always been characterised by mystique, an attribute its elders have cultivated to give the impression of god-like omnipotence. As Mr Bernanke pointed out, there was a time when the Fed didn't bother to announce its policy decisions at all – not letting the public know was very much a part of its modus operandi. The central bank saw itself as some kind of Delphic oracle, dishing out whatever judgments and interventions it deemed necessary for the survival of the nation. Lesser mortals were invited to believe in the wisdom of these judgments, but they were not allowed to understand them.
Alan Greenspan, Fed chairman from 1987 to 2006, may have been speaking with his tongue in his cheek when he said, "if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said", but it summed up the order of the day. Obfuscation was not just preferable to transparency
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Crooks!
After the robbery of a nation.
Crooks that deserved to be tried and imprisoned.
G.D. right!
Our enemies and people like George Soros would love to see the FED dismantled.
Some people blame the FED for Congress overspending. But the FED didn't do that, congress did. And a financially irresponsible Congress can promise that your kids will repay foreigners with gold, just as easily as they can promise that your kids will repay foreigners with dollars. Don't blame the FED for Congress's mistakes.
Conspiracy hacks and people like Ron Paul claim the FED is unaudited. But the truth is that the audits are available on the web for all to see. Every dollar is accounted for by independent auditors.
2009 Combined Federal Reserve banks - Independent Auditor Report on Page 3
2009 Federal Reserve Board financial statements - Independent Auditor Statement Page 2
Financial Statements of the Federal Reserve Banks (Combined and Individual banks)
>> Some people blame the FED for Congress overspending. But the FED didn’t do that, congress did.
No, the Fed didn’t spend the money.
But in The Bernank’s ignorant, misguided stupidity of buying a trillion or more dollars of Treasury debt so Congress can continue spending away three to five future generations’ wealth, he’s facilitating it.
In the end, the Fed failing in its currency oversight role will ruin this nation’s economy.
Well the fed did make loans directly to business that had no legal reason to obtain funds from the fed, a TARP scam.
Ben, Is that you?
Guess they got theirs so time to go home. Nice gig. Not sure how this will work out if that Judgement Day thingy comes to pass.
Why does it take ten thousand dollars to buy the same amount that one thousand dollars bought in 1913. Thank God for the fed. Only the banks make out. No country’s economy has ever survived throughout history that has had a central bank. There was only one honest man in history and he was not a banker. Printing unlimited amounts of money only destroys an economy. But maby that is what the w.h. commies are trying to do. They are doing a very good job.
The Fed has pretty much done what it was created to do, steal the wealth of the US.
I don’t have time for it but I would bet dollars to doughnuts that if someone polled the posters on this thread who are happy with the Fed they would find that they have done very, very well on the stock market.
First person I've heard use that term in decades...
Once upon a time that phase referred to an extremely safe bet because donuts were worth so much less than a dollar. Now after nearly 100 years of the Fed's constant inflation policy "bet dollars to doughnuts" is really close to 1:1 odds. Pretty soon we'll be saying "bet doughnuts to dollars" to mean a safe bet.
I know the anti-fed people here are going to torch you, but I agree with you. The Fed has kept our economy relatively stable.
The dollar is heading to worthlessness daily not because of Ben’s policies, it’s 0bama, Reid & Pelosi’s reckless spending. The annual addition to our aggregate debt is far in excess of the world’s capacity to finance it with existing capital. So he has to print money to cover it; the only other option is to default the government and nobody in Washington is going to do that. The only issue I have with Ben is not that he’s printing money like mad, it’s that he’s lying about it. QE1 and QE2 have nothing to do with “stimulus” to the economy; it’s just monetizing debt. There will be QE3, or something like it under another name, because our government spends way too much money it doesn’t have until Ben prints it up out of thin air.
I was not aware that when we were on the gold standard sometimes a $20 gold piece was worth $10 and sometimes worth $50.
I was thinking that when I wrote it but I am a slave to my tired old cliches.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.