Free Republic

With inflation running at over 6 percent and interest rates on savings near zero, the Federal Reserve is delivering a negative 6 percent real (inflation-adjusted) return on trillions of dollars in savings. This is effectively expropriating American savers’ nest eggs at the rate of 6 percent a year. It is not only a problem in 2021, however, but an ongoing monetary policy problem of long standing. The Fed has been delivering negative real returns on savings for more than a decade. It should be discussing with the legislature what it thinks about this outcome and its impacts on savers. The...

The Federal Reserve, saying “the coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States,” cut interest rates to zero on Sunday and launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program to shelter the economy from the effects of the virus. Facing highly disrupted financial markets, the Fed also slashed the rate of emergency lending at the discount window for banks by 125 bps to 0.25%, and lengthened the term of loans to 90 days. The Fed also cut reserve requirement ratios for thousands of banks to zero. In addition, in a global coordinated...

I recently had the opportunity to read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin, a prodigious tome dealing with the circumstances surrounding the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. I was taken aback by some of its provocative assertions. America joined World War I largely to help a few bankers profit off the war (despite a long-standing Monroe doctrine that prohibited our involvement in European affairs) The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was supported by international financial interests in order to destabilize Russia and steal the wealth of the Russian people; and So-called "foreign aid" is merely a...

Recently Janet Yellen expressed both concern and puzzlement over the rising wealth inequality in America. I found her speech to be disingenuous and disturbing. Why? Because it is the Fed’s very own policies that are driving the expansion of the wealth gap. Read Yellen’s speech. Either Yellen thinks we cannot be trusted with the truth (worrisome), or the Fed is clueless as to how its own policies operate (scarier). SNIP In a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Yellen said steady growth in inequality over the past several decades represents the most sustained rise since the 19th century....

STOP your bellyaching. That was the message delivered last Thursday to Americans who today make almost nothing on the savings in their bank accounts. It came from Sarah Bloom Raskin, an insider at the Federal Reserve. Ms. Raskin, one of the governors on the Fed board, made the usual disclaimer that her comments reflected her own thinking. But Fed watchers said her remarks probably mirrored views inside the central bank. The issue — as anyone looking for income-producing investments knows — is that the Fed drove down interest rates to almost zero to shore up big banks and an economy...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is giving a presentation to the House Budget Committee on “The State of The U.S. Economy.” Here is the CSPAN link. In summary, he says the economy is growing, Europe is still a problem (and will continue to be so for a long-time). His Q&A with the committee is very interesting. 1. He will do everything possible to protect the U.S. from Europe (he has already stated that The Fed will likely keep interest rates at near zero through at least late 2014). 2. He talked about the unsustainable fiscal condition in the U.S. (trillion...

Age: 18 Age started saving: 11 Amount saved: $300,000 Hometown: Princeton, N.J. When I retire, I want to have enough money to live comfortably. There are a lot of other things to save for [right now] since I'm only in my first year of college, so I try to put away the most that I can. I don't have a constant amount that I contribute, but when I'm working I'll try to put in at least $50 a month to my savings account. At this point, I'd say I have a little over $300,000 saved up. My parents encourage me,...