Let's look together on this. What we got is that in the 1920's dollars were pegged to gold--
[click to enlarge]
--while the Fed was setting interest rates.
Posted on 05/01/2014 4:34:21 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot
Who do you feel owns it?
As a privately held system they have even refused to be audited!
They're audited all the time.
12 banks owned by the government.
Fiat money and the ability to manipulate interest rates are the basis of progressive government. Why?
Because it forces government to 1) compete with private citizens for money. The government can not control precious metals, but it can control the printing presses. 2) politicized interest rates are impossible with a precious metals standard. How does the US government run $1 trillion in deficits, all while keeping interest rates at near zero in the short-term? 3) If government is forced to pay real interest rates, and can not control the flow or creation of money, it must simply operate on what it can collect in taxes. Debt is an option only for the short-term. $17 trillion in long-term debts would be absolutely impossible.
A government that is forced by private money and market interest rates can not afford to run long-term, expensive, progressive social-engineering schemes, from Social Security to Obamacare to Food Stamps.
--and so Americans buying gold from China at a lower price should not by itself make America poorer.
There's something else that happens with foreign trade, it's the fact that the dollars spent on Chinese gold don't stay in China because the gold miners there use Chinese money instead of dollars. The dollars have to be used to buy stuff from America. Foreign trade balances in dollars as well as value. That's why foreign exchange rates do not affect the trade balance and Dean Baker doesn't understand economics.
That is a flat out lie. But then you knew that and posted it anyway. The federal government as represented by the Congress was told by Bernanke that they could not audit the private federal reserve and the ‘federal reserve’ would not tell them where much of the stimulus went. So why are you lying for the private banking cabal at FR?
It was my second post to you.
Why?
How does the US government run $1 trillion in deficits, all while keeping interest rates at near zero in the short-term?
People are risk averse and are willing to earn tiny returns in exchange for safety.
That is a flat out lie.
Who do you feel owns them? Why do you feel that?
The federal government as represented by the Congress was told by Bernanke that they could not audit the private federal reserve
I believe you're confused. Prove your claim, show me the actual quote.
the ‘federal reserve’ would not tell them where much of the stimulus went.
It sounds like you are confused about what an audit shows.
Do you think an audit of Wells Fargo will show my mortgage with my name on it? That an audit of JP Morgan will show my checking account with my name on it?
So why are you lying for the private banking cabal at FR?
It bothers me when Freepers post such silly errors. And that's no lie.
Let's look together on this. What we got is that in the 1920's dollars were pegged to gold--
[click to enlarge]
--while the Fed was setting interest rates.
And just a few short years after that, Roosevelt ordered all gold confiscated from private citizens.
Exactly, the point being that the Fed did interest rates back when the dollar was still pegged to gold --before the gold certs were confiscated. Gov't interest rates and metal standards can and did happen together. For years and years.
Why promulgate the myth that development costs (including drugs investigated but never approved for sale) don’t figure into the cost of a prescription medicine?
The email you pasted in is a load of bull-obama.
Is your argument that the two things must have instantaneous reaction? Because if so, that’s not what I am saying
Yes, the Fed could manipulate interest rates, but within only a few years from the late 20’s to the early 1930’s - the cracks showed, and the government was forced to take action by confiscating gold.
“Why promulgate the myth that development costs (including drugs investigated but never approved for sale) don’t figure into the cost of a prescription medicine?”
The thrust of my post was the “retail” markup of drugs, and how much cheaper they were at Cosco. Many of these drugs are generic, and not even produced by the company that developed them. Recovery of costs is at the wholesale level not the retail level.
But the email you cited doesn’t address the wholesale prices - only the raw ingredients versus the retail price (for generics - which are off the patent monopoly cited in the original article).
It’s kind of like using the cost of a 2x4 to complain about the cost of a finished house.
Now, the markup may be unwarranted, and we can certainly discuss that, but the email you pasted in focuses on ingredients versus retail - which specifically excludes even such basic items as labor costs, shipping costs, insurance (which for a pharma company can be danged high), etc.
In order to focus on the retail markup, one has to use the wholesale price as the starting point, not the active ingredient price.
You and I together are looking at how the gov't can set interest rates while the dollar's pegged to metal. We seem to agree on that.
Something else we'd probably agree on is the fact that even though we constantly hear folks say that the fed controls the economy and sets interest rates, there's no way in hell any gov't can ever do that. It's crazy. The economy is what happens when free people like you and I feel like buying and selling stuff, and interest rates will always be whatever folks like you and I are willing to accept.
OK, so the fed does have the power to set the bank overnight rate, the margin rate, etc., but most lending/borrowing is done privately with no gov't say-so. It's this private lending that creates money. In fact, most dollars are created in foreign banks where the U.S. doesn't even have jurisdiction.
Still think your ideas eliminate progressivism?
Absolutely. The Fed manipulates interest rates from overnight to 30 years. Its a simple fact you can easily reason through. No FED, no $17 trillion in long-term government debt.
How's that?
The Fed manipulates interest rates from overnight to 30 years.
They control the overnight. The 30 year, not so much.
Its a simple fact you can easily reason through.
Still waiting for you to show me.
No FED, no $17 trillion in long-term government debt.
Why not?
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