Free Republic

The celebrated Paul Volcker (1927-2019) became Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board 43 years ago on August 6, 1979. The 20th-century Great Inflation, stoked by the Federal Reserve and the other central banks of the day, was in full gallop in the U.S and around the world. In the month he started as Chairman, U.S. inflation continued its double-digit run—that August suffered a year-over-year inflation rate of 11.8%. On August 15, the Federal Reserve raised its fed funds mid-target range to 11%, but that was less than the inflation rate, so a nominal 11% was still a negative real interest...

,/A>Did Fed Chair Powell just jump straight from ‘denial’ to ‘acceptance’ on his journey through grief at the death of ‘transitory’ inflation? Speaking on MarketPlace Radio this evening, Powell said the central bank has both the tools and resolve to bring down rapid inflation — though he acknowledged that the path to lower price increases could be a painful one. Powell: So you can see that inflation is just way too high here in the United States. And by the way, the same all over the world, really, the global economies all around the world have been hit by a...

President Joe Biden announced Monday that he’s nominating Jerome Powell for a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chair, endorsing Powell’s stewardship of the economy through a brutal pandemic recession in which the Fed’s ultra-low rate policies helped bolster confidence and revitalize the job market. Biden also said he would nominate Lael Brainard, the lone Democrat on the Fed’s Board of Governors and the preferred alternative to Powell among many progressives, as vice chair. The president said he will fill the three remaining slots on the board, including a vice chair for supervision, a bank regulatory post, in early December.

While speaking at a meeting of Japanese business leaders in Tokyo, Trump said the stock market would be anywhere between 7,000 to 10,000 points higher if the U.S. central bank had chosen to keep interest rates steady. He also suggested that the growth rate in the U.S. would have exceeded 3 percent. "But they wanted to raise interest rates," he said. "You’ll explain that to me." Trump, despite hand-picking Chairman Jerome Powell more than a year ago, has been a frequent critic of the Fed, often urging policymakers to cut interest rates from the current target range of 2.25 percent...

A senior Republican lawmaker is putting Federal Reserve System boss Janet Yellen on notice: There's a new sheriff in town, so America and American interests had better come first from now on. Citing the victory of President Donald Trump, Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the vice chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Yellen demanding an end to secretive negotiations with unaccountable foreign entities plotting to impose ever more burdensome regulations on Americans. In the letter, the congressman calls such scheming “unacceptable” and demands that it be stopped.Whether knowingly or not, Representative McHenry's letter took aim...

Facing its best chance of passage ever under the new GOP-controlled Congress and the incoming Trump administration, wildly popular legislation to open up the Federal Reserve's books, known as “Audit the Fed,” was just re-introduced in the 115th Congress. The bill, sponsored by hundreds of lawmakers in the House and the Senate, would force the obsessively secretive and increasingly controversial central bank to submit to a full government audit. But the Fed and its apologists do not plan to allow a real audit without a tough fight.The legislation, first introduced many years ago by constitutional champion and former congressman Ron...

Donald Trump met with former banker John Allison (shown) on Monday in a meeting that was largely ignored by the mainstream media. It remains unclear whether Allison was being interviewed for the job of secretary of the Treasury or was just giving Trump some advice from a free market perspective.Either way, it’s a breath of fresh air in an era where statism and excessive hubris (the idea that mere politicians and economists can guide, even stimulate a $20-trillion-dollar economy with monetary policy) has reigned for decades.Right after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina in 1971, Allison joined...

Former Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher recently gave a speech identifying the Federal Reserve’s easy money/low interest rate policies as a source of the public anger that propelled Donald Trump into the White House. Mr. Fisher is certainly correct that the Fed’s policies have “skewered” the middle class. However, the problem is not specific Fed policies, but the very system of fiat currency managed by a secretive central bank.Federal Reserve-generated increases in money supply cause economic inequality. This is because, when the Fed acts to increase the money supply, well-to-do investors and other crony capitalists are the first...

The long awaited October surprise Wikileaks dump finally took place at 6pm Friday. The dump included hundreds of emails between Clinton campaign higher-ups and texts of Hillary Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street big-money financial institutions, the same ones she rails against on the campaign trail. One email string that should concern every Second Amendment supporter in the country emerged from the document dump. As reported by Breitbart.com, one email generated by Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon confirmed that, if elected, Hillary Clinton would use Executive Orders to go far beyond what President Obama has done to neuter the Second...

Donald Trump told CNBC on Thursday he's for low interest rates unless inflation perks up, and he would probably replace Janet Yellen when her term is up as Federal Reserve chair. "I have nothing against Janet Yellen whatsoever. I think she's been doing her job," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said in a wide-ranging phone interview with "Squawk Box."

President Obama’s nominee to become chairman of the Federal Reserve came out against Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s “Audit the Fed” legislation on Thursday. Asked by Republican Sen. David Vitter about the proposal, Yellen said she “strongly” supports “transparency and openness on the part of the Fed” but does not support any proposal that would “diminish” its independence. “I would be very concerned about legislation that would subject the Federal Reserve to short-term political pressures that could interfere with that independence,” she said. Yellen, the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, made the comments during her confirmation hearing...

Sen. Ted Cruz announced Wednesday that he is backing an effort by fellow Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky to get a vote on auditing the Federal Reserve as a condition for considering the nomination of Janet L. Yellen to be chairwoman of the Fed. “I agree with Rand Paul: before the Senate votes on whether to confirm Janet Yellen, we should at the very least allow a vote on the Audit the Fed bill,” the Texas Republican said in a statement. “The Federal Reserve has expanded our money supply by trillions, benefiting Wall Street but making life harder for millions...

I've always avoided reporting on the Federal Reserve. I know it's more important than much of the stuff I cover, but it's so boring. How can I succeed on TV reporting on the Fed? Fed chairs even work at being dull. Alan Greenspan said he tried to be obscure because he didn't want to spook markets. He called his obfuscation "Fedspeak." It's a far cry from the clarity of his language -- and principles -- when he was young and a disciple of libertarian Ayn Rand. Outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his likely successor, Janet Yellen, are almost as...

Throughout history, there have been “peasant uprisings” in response to ill-treatment by rulers. These “peasant uprisings” have many details but one basic message: “Please, Sir, don’t beat me so hard.” From the perspective of the rulers, a few peasant uprisings are a sign of good management. If there were no such uprisings, it means that you should exploit the peasants a little more aggressively. “Peasant uprisings” don’t accomplish much. “Occupy Wall Street” was one such peasant uprising. Sheep also go “baaaa” when they are shorn. What does work is: a new vision. You need an alternative to the present power...

2013: List of Pro-Liberty Bills in Congress Updated: Jan 5, 2013 H.R. 23: To provide that human life shall be deemed to begin with fertilization. H.R. 24: To require a full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States, and for other purposes. H.R. 25: To promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States. H.R. 33: To amend title 31,...

The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order's plans. It's not about Left or Right: it's about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves...

It is my belief that, in one month, Ron Paul will shock the world and win the Iowa Caucuses. Granted, that belief goes against all the polling data and all the money data and all the common sense in the world. Mitt Romney has all the money in the world, and has the national party secretly/silently pulling for him to win. Newt Gingrich has the lead in the polls and seems to have caught fire at just the right time. Michele Bachmann is from a neighboring state, and, well, you never know. Even Rick Santorum has an outside shot at...

Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who has long called for abolishing the Federal Reserve, said he now looks “like a moderate” compared with GOP rival and fellow Texan, Gov. Rick Perry, who said it would be “almost treacherous, or treasonous,” if the central bank increased the money supply before the 2012 election. Referring to Mr. Perry, the Texas congressman told supporters at a campaign event in Concord, N.H., Wednesday that “He realizes that talking about the Fed is good, too. But I tell you what: He makes me look like a moderate.” Mr. Paul added, “I have never once said [Fed...

Republican Congressman Ron Paul may be Julian Assange’s most loyal supporter in Congress. Visiting Fox Business’ Freedom Watch– a program on which Assange has been welcome several times– Rep. Paul went to bat for the Wikileaker in the middle of condemning the secrecy of the Federal Reserve, and made a little request of his own: “every conversation of the last ten years with the Federal Reserve people.” Chop, chop, Assange! Rep. Paul, who is also a regular guest on the program, chatted for some time with the injustices of having a “secret government” like the Federal Reserve with Judge Andrew...

The TSA chose Meg McLain for special screening. They wanted her to go through the new porno-scanners. When she opted out, TSA agents raised an enormous ruckus. When she asked some question about what they planned to do to her, they flipped out. TSA agents yelled at her, handcuffed her to a chair, ripped up her ticket, called in 12 local Miami cops and finally escorted her out of the airport. Listen to her story as she told it on radio show Free Talk Live last night. Things are truly getting scary.