Free Republic

What would happen if the Federal Reserve was shut down permanently? That is a question that CNBC asked recently, but unfortunately most Americans don't really think about the Fed much. Most Americans are content with believing that the Federal Reserve is just another stuffy government agency that sets our interest rates and that is watching out for the best interests of the American people. But that is not the case at all. The truth is that the Federal Reserve is a private banking cartel that has been designed to systematically destroy the value of our currency, drain the wealth of...

Out on the campaign trail, Fed head Ben Bernanke is an unpopular guy. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have both said they would replace Bernanke, not reappoint him. Rep. Ron Paul would swap the whole Federal Reserve monetary system for a gold-linked dollar, making the yellow metal legal tender. And it was Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, before he dropped out of the race, who said more quantitative easing by the Fed would be "almost treasonous." Republicans in Washington are equally unimpressed by Bernanke. Rep. Paul Ryan recently criticized the Fed for bankrolling our huge budget deficits and thereby accommodating...

Many critics of the Federal Reserve won't be satisfied until the central bank is shut down for good. But abolishing the Fed only raises the bigger issue: What would—or should—be in its place? The debate is hardly new. Efforts to set a cohesive national monetary policy through a central bank in the U.S. have been many and turbulent. However, pushing the Federal Reserve building into the Potomac River wouldn't be easy. Let's see how the process could play out. What has to be done? The first thing to do in getting rid of the Fed is for Congress to repeal...

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years. The debauch of the dollar will be even greater if the Fed exceeds its goal of a 2 percent per year increase in the price level. An increase in the price level of 2% in any one year is barely noticeable. Under a gold standard, such an increase was uncommon, but not unknown. The difference is that when the dollar was as good as gold, the years of...

In a fascinating exchange between Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican from Wisconsin accused the Fed of eroding peoples’ savings, creating a false sense of security by manipulating the yield curve, and bailing people out by indirectly engaging in fiscal policy. Bernanke hasn’t been comfortable the last couple of times he was forced to testify in Congress. On Thursday, the Fed Chairman was questioned by the House Budget Committee on the state of the economy. After giving his usual description of the economic outlook (inflation has remained moderate, unemployment is high, Fed will do whatever...

Constitutional money is identified in the plain and unambiguous language of the U. S. Constitution itself. Article I, Section 8, clause 4 contains the following clause: The Congress shall have power to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures. This means that the Congress, elected to represent the interests of the citizen, has the responsibility to regulate the value of our money. The value of money is regulated by how much or how little money is created. If too much money is created than the value and therefore the...

One Dam Metaphor For The 2012 Global Financial SystemJanuary 30, 2012Charles Hugh Smith What do you do when flood waters threaten the dam? If you're the Federal Reserve, you close the floodgates and let the water rise. Metaphors have an uncanny ability to capture the essence of complex situations. Here is one dam metaphor that distills and explains the entire global financial system in 2012. The way to visualize the current situation is to imagine a dam holding back rising storm waters. The dam is the regulatory system, the rule of law, trust in the transparency and fairness of the...

While the first reaction is for gold to rally and the pundits to come screaming out of the weeds yelling it’s inflationary, the harsh reality of this statement is actually DEFLATIONARY and not INFLATIONARY. The assumption is that the Fed will keep money cheap and that will mean more inflation. However, this is actually an international demonstration of pure insanity – the attempt to keep applying the same methods and expecting a different result than what was achieved in the past or in Japan. Those prognosticating INFLATION will be left behind just watching as has been the case all along....

Well, we got an inflation target from the Fed. Basically, thinking at the Fed has been eliminated. The process has been automated. Bernanke has convinced the Fed board to adopt Core PCE as a determinate of monetary policy. So long as CPCE stays below 2%, Ben is going to have his foot planted on the monetary metal. It’s “full speed ahead” according to the Chairman. He’s pushed things off until 2014 – a very long time from now. My question: “Why is the Fed using CPCE versus another measure of inflation?” The very good news is that there is answer,...

Yesterday was a watershed event. The Fed capitulated and acknowledged that the economy will require zero percent interest rates into the indefinite future. Just six months ago they were saying the policy would only continue through to the end of 2012. What happened to change their view of the economy? Perhaps, for once, they decided that honesty is the policy. But, that would be too much to hope for. No, they are hell-bent on making things look as good as they possibly can for the upcoming election. They had to acknowledge the obvious: the economy is weak and looking even...

The Federal Reserve has moved closer to embarking on a new round of its controversial money-pumping after the central bank and its chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted a grim outlook for the U.S. economy. Bernanke on Wednesday opened the door a bit wider for the Fed to return to buying securities in the months ahead to buttress a weak recovery and keep inflation from slipping too far below its newly adopted 2-percent target. "It sounds like the finger is on the trigger," said Thomas Simons, a money market economist at Jefferies & Co. The Fed's announcement that it was unlikely to...

The U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will not raise interest rates until at least late 2014, even later than investors expected, in an effort to support a sluggish economic recovery. Without making major shifts to its outlook for the economy, the central bank described the unemployment rate as still elevated and said it expects inflation to remain at levels consistent with stable prices. “I think what they are seeing is that the rate of growth is not sufficient to bring down the unemployment rate,” said Brian Dolan, chief strategist at Forex.com. The Fed depicted business investment as having slowed,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it will likely not raise interest rates until at least late 2014, much later than it had said previously, as it nurses a still-sluggish economic recovery. The Fed, after a two-day policy meeting, repeated its view that the economy faces "significant downside risks" but it offered little to suggest it was close to launching another round of bond-buying to prop up growth. It did say, however, that it would maintain a "highly accommodative" monetary policy stance. Economic conditions "are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at...

So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (AP Photo) During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent. When Obama entered the White House in January 2009, the city average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79, according to the BLS. (The figures are in nominal dollars: not adjusted for inflation.) Five months later in June, unleaded gasoline was $2.26 per gallon,...

Audit, neuter and rein in the Fed!! Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley! Repeal Dodd-Frank!! Also, not on this clip but I've seen him say it elsewhere: Fire if not jail Bernanke!! Click the source link for the video.

Looking at the Federal Reserve's FOMC meeting schedule for the rest of the year one meeting looms politically large, the meeting on October 23-24 (September 12th a close second). This meeting takes place just two weeks before the November 6th Presidential election. A Fed decides to make a dovish move at this meeting, thereby rallying the markets just weeks before the election, there is no question it would have a psychological effect on voters in favor of the Obama administration.

Next Wednesday, between 12:30 and 2PM, we will get a ton of new information to digest and analyze. The Federal Reserve will make a series of statements while unveiling its new communication effort. A portion of the new information will be contained in the revised Summary of Economic Projections (SEP). The Fed has worked long and hard on its new communication policy. The question is, “What will people think and how will the markets react?” I believe that there is a very good possibility that the Fed’s plan will add to uncertainties regarding monetary policy. Contrary to its objectives, the...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is calling for the United States to think about returning to the gold standard. Speaking at a foreign policy forum in South Carolina on Tuesday, Gingrich advocated a "commission on gold to look at the whole concept of how do we get back to hard money." Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House, has spoken in favor of a "hard money" policy in the past, but these were his strongest comments to support reinstating the gold standard. Gingrich would model his "gold commission" after one put in place after Ronald Reagan was elected, when the...

G. Edward Griffin joined us today. For those not familiar with his work, he wrote the definitive book on the Federal Reserve--The Creature From Jekyll Island, which details the shady dealings that went on to pass the Federal Reserve Act through Congress. Unfortunately too few people are familiar with this tale. Griffin has remained active in the debate and believes that everything that's going on right now is a prelude to The New World Order and universal totalitarianism. When faced with the decision to Get out of Dodge or to fight to restore the greatness of America, Griffin believes that...

Recovery: The media have busied themselves with touting the big economic rebound they see brewing in the U.S. We hope they're right. But if they are, why is the Federal Reserve getting ready to print even more money? The media argument goes like this: After years of struggling, the economy is finally churning out jobs. Last month alone there were 200,000 new ones, with unemployment falling to 8.5% - its lowest since Obama entered office. But say this for the Fed: It didn't sit on its hands. In those first two QE efforts, it bought $2 trillion of government-backed mortgage...

WASHINGTON — As the housing bubble entered its waning hours in 2006, top Federal Reserve officials marveled at the desperate antics of home builders seeking to lure buyers. The officials laughed about the cars that builders were offering as signing bonuses, and about efforts to make empty homes look occupied. They joked about one builder who said that inventory was “rising through the roof.” But the officials, meeting every six weeks to discuss the health of the nation’s economy, gave little credence to the possibility that the faltering housing market would weigh on the broader economy, according to transcripts that...

WASHINGTON – The desperation of homebuilders was a running joke among top Federal Reserve officials during the waning phase of the housing bubble in 2006, according to transcripts released Thursday. They laughed about the cars that builders were giving to buyers. They laughed about efforts to make empty homes look occupied. They laughed at a report that one builder said inventory was rising “through the roof.”

A white paper (via @carney) sent from Ben Bernanke to the chairs of the Senate and House committees of banking and financial services and released today is not just a subtle nudge at Congress to do something to address lingering weakness in the housing industry. For the generally tight-lipped Federal Reserve, this sounds a lot like a call to action. In the release, the Fed suggests that the government find a way to convert a significant segment of the stock of real estate owned properties (REOs)—essentially, properties held by banks or other institutions after foreclosure—into rentals. While it refrains from...

Neil F. Keenan, Individually and as Agent for The Dragon Family, citizens of foreign states v. Daniele Dal Bosco, et al. No. 11-cv-08500-JFK filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New YorkParagraph 1 of the Complaint:"This is a civil claim arising out of the concerted, knowing, malicious scheme and international conspiracy engaged in by the Defendants for the designed purpose of defrauding plaintiff KEENAN, the designated Agent of his Principal, the 'Dragon Family,' for the express purpose of expropriating, stealing and converting certain negotiable financial instruments lawfully owned by the Dragon Family and entrusted to...

First it was Zero Hedge. Then Ron Paul joined in. Now it is the turn of a former Dallas Fed Vice President, Gerald ODriscoll, to outright accuse the Fed of bailing out Europe courtesy of "incomprehensible" currency swaps, and implicitly accusing Bernanke of lying that he would not bail out Europe even as he has done precisely that. And not only that: by cutting the USD swap spread from OIS+100 to OIS+50, the Fed has made sure it gets paid less than ever for extended Europe the courtesy of bailing it out all over again. Incidentally, O'Driscoll says, "America's central...

Obama will announce Tuesday that he plans to nominate a Harvard University finance professor and a former private-equity executive to fill the two vacancies on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board, a White House official said. The nominees are Jeremy Stein, 51 yeas old, an economist who did a five-month stint in the Treasury and White House in the early months of the Obama administration, and Jerome Powell, 58, who was undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic finance in the early 1990s during the George W. Bush administration.

MANHATTAN (CN) - An American expatriate in Bulgaria claims the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Office of International Treasury Control and the Italian government conspired with a host of others to steal more than $1.1 trillion in financial instruments intended to support humanitarian purposes. The 111-page federal complaint involves a range of entities common to conspiracy theorists, including the Vatican, Illuminati, the Masons, the "Trilateral Trillenium Tripartite Gold Commission," and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

It was a humiliating moment, but Jon Corzine was determined to put the best face on it. On Oct. 25 of last year -- six days before the stunning collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd., the New York-based brokerage and commodities firm he headed -- Corzine released the company's dismal results for the second fiscal quarter of 2012. Revenue, he was forced to report, had declined from the same period the year before, from over $240 million to about $205 million; and selected losses for shareholders were estimated at $191.6 million, an increase of almost $100 million from the prior...

Listen to the InterviewDavid still has a shine for many precious metals stocks, that he believes are trading at extreme discounts. It's times like these that require serious and seasoned investors to simply filter out the noise and concentrate on the fundamentals. And the fundamentals are unchanged and perhaps more favorable to the metal sector than ever before. Governments have gotten neither spending, nor debt under control and don't seem to be very inclined to do so in the near future. This means that until people and governments start to live within their means, not much is going to change...

The Fed and the Wall Street Journal have both taken issue with Bloomberg's article Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress In response to the above article, the Fed went on a publicity campaign, lashing back at Bloomberg and others (but did not mention anyone by explicit name) in this Memo to Congress. Bloomberg Stands By Its Reporting

The further we get from 2008, when the American economy flirted with another Great Depression, the more people forget what happened and create stories that satisfy some political, ideological or journalistic urge. Among the biggest losers in this revisionism is the Federal Reserve. Although it helped save the economy from a deeper collapse, it is increasingly portrayed as the epicenter of an unspoken conspiracy to use government money to benefit Wall Street at everyone else's expense. If this view prevails - and it's common among the tea party, the Occupy Wall Street movement, political figures on both left and right,...

The Case for Ron Paul By Jason McNew Ron Paul, a physician, has earned himself the name "Dr. No" by refusing to vote for any bill which assumes powers other than those given in Article I, Section VIII of the Constitution. When one takes a sober look at our country today, it's easy to see why Dr. Paul would behave this way. Take note that there is no authority in the Constitution for the setting of interest rates (as the Federal Reserve does) -- interference which led directly to the housing bubble (which Ron Paul predicted). Despite U.S. participation in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday pushed back against reports that the Fed had lent banks $7.77 trillion or more during the financial crisis, saying they contained "egregious errors and mistakes." Bloomberg Markets Magazine last month published an article called "Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress." The article was widely referenced by other news organizations, including the New York Times. The Bloomberg article said the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system when all guarantees and lending limits were added up. While Bernanke did not...

So much for moral hazard. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has decided he can't wait any longer for dithering eurozone politicians to sort out their problems. The warning signs of an impending European banking collapse, which would have global implications, cannot be ignored any longer. Eurozone money supply has been contracting recently in an eerie echo of the events contributing to the 1930s Depression. American money market funds, a crucial source of liquidity, have been fleeing back home and leaving European banks without access to dollars to refinance their liabilities. Investors have been getting so nervous of...

Following today's unprecedented POMO failure due to "system difficulties" (one would hope the Fed's POMO machine does not start and stop every time someone pulls the plug from the socket), Brian Sack's team (not to be confused with the PWG team of Eric Mindich) had to reschedule the literally failed auction. As it turns out, the first opportunity to sell $8-$8.75 billion in 2013 bonds is on December 2. And unlike the December 21 "reverse" POMO which is due to take place at 1:15pm, the rescheduled bond sale will instead occur at its usual time of 10:15-11:00am. Ironically, this is...

The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke(pictured to the right), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an...

About a month ago, I posted in regard to what I called “the euthanasia of the saver.” This comment had to do with the fact that nominal interest rates in the United States for financial investments such as bank certificates of deposit and bank savings accounts—the kinds of investments traditionally employed by retired persons and small savers, who wish to gain income without exposing their funds to great risk of capital loss—now fall considerably below the rate of inflation, and hence the real (or inflation-adjusted) yield on such investments is negative. That is, the nominal payoff is insufficient to offset...

Stripped to essentials, America is once again having to rescue Europe from itself. The interwoven banking and sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone has become so dangerous for the world that the US Federal Reserve has been forced to take emergency action, acting as global lender of last resort to shore up Europe's banking system. That it should have to do so as Germany and the European Central Bank hold back for legal reasons and refuse to commit decisive power adds a strange diplomatic twist. The move came once it was clear that Europe's prostrate banks would struggle to roll...

The U.S. Federal Reserve, acting with five other central banks, took steps Wednesday to boost the troubled global financial system by making it cheaper for banks to trade in U.S. dollars. The Fed -- along with central banks of the eurozone, England, Japan, Switzerland and Canada -- announced a coordinated plan to lower prices on dollar liquidity swaps beginning on December 5, and extending these swap arrangements to February 1, 2013.

Jefferies strategist David Zervos is back again with new recommendations about how the U.S. could step in and save the global economy. This week: threaten complete disaster if EU leaders don't act right away. Akin to what he said about the matter last week: The game in Europe is as we have described many times before - the Germans want budgetary control throughout all of Europe and the rest of EMU wants Eurobonds. Its a game a chicken with the entire global financial system on the line. The US should not allow itself to become a casualty in this Euro...

A one-time limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has uncovered some eye-popping corruption at the Fed and the mainstream media is barely even covering it. It turns out that the Federal Reserve made $16.1 trillion in secret loans to their banker friends during the financial crisis. These loans only went to the “too big to fail” banks and to foreign financial institutions. Not a penny of these loans went to small banks or to ordinary Americans. Not only did the bankers get trillions in nearly interest-free...

By 6 o’clock Friday most of us where either still shopping or relaxing and enjoying the two day holiday Thanksgiving has become. Nevertheless, Lee Adler a Wall Street Examiner reporter, was watching our backs and caught the New York City office of The Federal Reserve whispering an apology over the poor quality of its recent financial forecasts. Even “quasi” government agencies pull this stunt all the time. They dump bad stuff on Friday afternoons so it gets lost in Saturday’s news cycle – the least read or listened to of the whole week. Some of what the Fed report acknowledged...

The European debt crisis is raising the odds of a U.S. recession, with economic contraction more likely than not by early 2012, according to research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. While it is difficult to gauge the odds precisely, an analysis of leading U.S. economic indicators suggests a rising chance of a recession through the end of the year and into early next year, researchers at the regional Fed bank wrote on Monday. The risk of recession recedes after the second half of 2012, they found. New governments in Greece and Italy, with fresh promises to tackle fiscal...

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday tried to reassure U.S. soldiers, a group hit hard by high unemployment, that the Fed is working to strengthen the economy. In a speech at Fort Bliss, Bernanke told the soldiers and their families that the Fed is trying to lower unemployment. He talked about the Fed's policies of keeping short-term rates near zero and buying securities to try and lower longer-term rates, such as mortgages. Many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are returning home to find few jobs and limited prospects. The unemployment rate for veterans of those...

EL PASO, Texas -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will be hosting a town hall meeting at Fort Bliss in El Paso with soldiers and their families and greet military personnel returning from combat. Bernanke's trip to Fort Bliss is his first visit to an Army installation. It will also be his first visit to the state after GOP presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry said earlier this year Texans would treat him "ugly" if he continued lowering interest rates. Perry and other critics say that policy is akin to recklessly printing money. Another Texan seeking the presidency,...

As the Federal Reserve downgraded its economic projections, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke admitted that the central bank's board was in the same distressing position as the average American family — frustrated by the slow recovery, limited in its options and largely reduced to hoping for the best. "I certainly understand that many people are dissatisfied with the state of the economy," Bernanke told reporters Wednesday when asked about the Occupy Wall Street protests. "I'm dissatisfied with the state of the economy." The Fed noted in its official statement after its two-day meeting that economic conditions strengthened somewhat from July through...

The majority of media outlets are attempting to deal with the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon as any other mass movement that pops up out of nowhere with a clearly defined voice and message. As the protests continue and with no clear end in sight

t is the never ending bubble. Federal Reserve official, Daniel Tarullo, stated in a speech late last week that the Federal Reserve should begin to purchase long term mortgage backed securities as a way of driving down the interest rates, which are already at historic lows, even further. He said that it would have the added benefit of...

We are all familiar with this present financial crisis which began in 2008. Most people have heard that this event is “unprecedented” except for the Great Depression of the 1930s. This is largely nonsense. .... Today is just a variation on the same old theme—played particularly loudly. Here are the true stories of how freedom in money and banking were lost in America.

An avalanche of media scrutiny and an uneven debate performance have done little to drag down Herman Cain's momentum in the GOP race for president, a new poll shows. A CBS/New York Times survey of Republicans nationally finds the former pizza chain executive leading the field with 25% of the vote, 4 percentage points ahead of Mitt Romney. Newt Gingrich places third at 10%, followed by Ron Paul at 8% and Rick Perry at 6%. Cain and Romney were tied at 17% each in the previous survey; Perry had placed at 12%. One reason for Cain's continued strength: he now...