You contradict yourself. They aren't central-planners, but they have the ability to "expand and contract credit." Which is it? Perhaps you would like to explain the purposes of 4 rounds of Quantitative Easing or "operation twist" to influence long vs. short term rates?
Moreover, you didn't read my post - you just immediately gave your knee-jerk reaction. Yes, Nixon took us off the gold standard, which made our currency totally fiat and unbacked. That, AND the Federal Reserve's manipulations means our currency is completely centrally-controlled.
Your comments about America reaching its apogee in the 1950's - 40 years AFTER the establishment of the Fed are post-hoc thinking. You ignore the effects of two world wars, a great depression and the utter destruction of Europe and Japan afterwards, as well as our abandonment of the gold standard. As Toynbee said - there's a lot of ruin in a great nation.
As for Congress - I have explained elsewhere. Easy money and massive debt has enabled at least 60 years of nanny state growth and all their political dependents and cronies. Obama has increased debt by $10 Trillion, thanks to massive Federal Reserve QE and ZERO interest rates. Sorry, but Congress' only role now is simply to pass out the free money to its constituents and supporters. Show me any conservatives who can resist this?
I didn’t contradict myself at all. You just manage to confuse yourself.
Central planning is what a bureaucracy does in a socialist economy. Or MITI in Japan, and its twins in Korea and China. The Fed is a central bank, not a central planner. Maybe you know the difference and just misspoke.
One of the Fed’s primary roles since its inception is to adjust the quantity of high-powered money in the banking system. This was a very big deal to the agriculture sector. They do this by buying or selling bonds in open market operations- “expanding and contracting credit”.
Quantitative Easing is a tool that the Fed used to fight the deflationary forces unleashed by the collapse of trillions in bad paper issued during the housing bubble. Bernanke is a student of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz’s writing on the cause of the Great Depression, the collapse of the banking system, and QE is one attempt to follow their advice and prevent a repeat.
“That, AND the Federal Reserve’s manipulations means our currency is completely centrally-controlled. “
Google “pushing on a string” and it will teach you something about the ‘central control’ that you imagine the Fed possesses. The size of the money supply is ultimately determined by the decisions of tens of thousands of loan officers at local banks and not a committee at the Fed.
“Your comments about America reaching its apogee in the 1950’s - 40 years AFTER the establishment of the Fed are post-hoc thinking.”
I wasn’t ignoring anything. I was pointing out that contrary to kook belief the Fed isn’t the determining factor in middle class prosperity. The one time that they arguably were was 1930-33 when they failed to save the banking system.
“Obama has increased debt by $10 Trillion, thanks to massive Federal Reserve QE and ZERO interest rates.”
Facts are stubborn things. Obama hasn’t got the power to spend a cent that Congress doesn’t give him. And none of that spending has anything to do with the Fed’s QE, which was entirely aimed at keeping financial firms from collapsing. As far as zero interest rates, if the bond vigilantes weren’t acquiescing to them they wouldn’t be this low. They have more firepower than the Fed as they demonstrated all through the 70s.