11 Lies About The Federal Reserve

[CrusaderFrank]

...We never ever had a Great Depression before the creation of the Fed. Coincidence?

We never ever had a World War before the creation of the Fed. Coincidence? We never ever had Communism or Fascism before the creation of the Fed. Coincidence? We never ever had ...

OK, you get the point.

You're not making a lick of sense. We've had economies for thousands of years but we only have an economy worse than the 7 Biblical Lean years (caused by weather) because the Fed decided to destroy the US economy.

When Rome and Carthage fought, that was a World War.

The Definition of "World War" is confused and misleading.

Why wasn't the US Revolution involving the US, the Brits and France a "world War"?

 

[expat_panama]

...HuffPo's 11 Myths About the Fed, Refuted | Liberty Classroom...

Some of us prefer to read:

1. “The Fed actually prints money.”
2. “The Federal Reserve is spending money wastefully.”
3. “The Fed is causing hyperinflation.”
4. “The amount of cash available has grown tremendously.”
5. “The gold standard would make prices more stable.”
6. “The Fed is causing food and gas prices to rise.”
7. “Quantitative easing has not helped job growth.”
8. “Tying the U.S. dollar to commodities would solve everything.”
9. “Ending the Fed would make the financial system more stable.”
10. “The Fed can’t do anything else to help job growth.”
11. ”The Fed can’t easily unwind all of this stimulus.”

Loonies that buy that crap are beyond reason so any attempts to 'refute' are for the benefit of the refuter, not the refutee. Just the same, I'm wondering why they left out two others we hear a lot:

• The Fed is a private bank
• Nobody audits the Fed.

Crazy. Amazingly crazy.

Why have a discussion when you can simply denigrate the intelligence of anybody who would dare disagree with you, right?

What's happening here is that some study how money works so they can feed their families, others just live off the state. There's no point in trying to explain how the Fed works to anyone with no interest or reason to learn. This thread's a good case in point. We're seeing the place getting infested by folks who've long since abandoned reality and joined the tin-foil crowd. At first glance it's comical, but as it wears it becomes a bit unhealthy.

Thanks for the thread though, and cheers!

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

HuffPo’s Myth #4: “The amount of cash available has grown tremendously.”

“Some Federal Reserve critics claim that the Fed has devalued the U.S. dollar through a massive expansion of the amount of currency in circulation,” says Kavoussi. “But not only is inflation low; currency growth also has not really changed since the Fed started its stimulus measures, as noted by Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal.”

This looks like another silly gotcha with definitions, like the “printing money” canard. The graph below shows that the currency component of M1 hasn’t shot up like a rocket, it’s true; but M1 itself (which consists of not just physical paper but also checking account deposits) has indeed risen sharply, notwithstanding the insights of Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal.

M2 - the more relevant number - has NOT risen nearly so much.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Some of us prefer to read:

1. “The Fed actually prints money.”
2. “The Federal Reserve is spending money wastefully.”
3. “The Fed is causing hyperinflation.”
4. “The amount of cash available has grown tremendously.”
5. “The gold standard would make prices more stable.”
6. “The Fed is causing food and gas prices to rise.”
7. “Quantitative easing has not helped job growth.”
8. “Tying the U.S. dollar to commodities would solve everything.”
9. “Ending the Fed would make the financial system more stable.”
10. “The Fed can’t do anything else to help job growth.”
11. ”The Fed can’t easily unwind all of this stimulus.”

Loonies that buy that crap are beyond reason so any attempts to 'refute' are for the benefit of the refuter, not the refutee. Just the same, I'm wondering why they left out two others we hear a lot:

• The Fed is a private bank
• Nobody audits the Fed.

Crazy. Amazingly crazy.

Why have a discussion when you can simply denigrate the intelligence of anybody who would dare disagree with you, right?

What's happening here is that some study how money works so they can feed their families, others just live off the state. There's no point in trying to explain how the Fed works to anyone with no interest or reason to learn. This thread's a good case in point. We're seeing the place getting infested by folks who've long since abandoned reality and joined the tin-foil crowd. At first glance it's comical, but as it wears it becomes a bit unhealthy.

Thanks for the thread though, and cheers!

No, what we have here is you simply calling anybody who disagrees with you crazy.

 

[Paulie]

...the Federal Reserve is a 12 member charter of private banks.

If that were true why would the Fed matter? I mean, you don't like it you can go form your own 'private charter'. Fact is that the Fed matters because it's created and funded by congress, controlled by the President, and it's how America's decided to regulate the value of its money. You got a better way let's hear it.

You wanna tell us how it's "controlled by the president"?

Please tell me what authority Obama has on ANYTHING the Fed does.

 

[expat_panama]

...What's happening here is that some study how money works so they can feed their families, others just live off the state...

No, what we have here is you...

Ah, you seem to prefer changing the subject from the Fed and money to me and what I'm doing. Maybe I should be flattered but ultimately I'm aware that I'm really not that important and definitely not that interesting. Money creating and the way people lose contact with reality in their hatred for the Fed is different. That's where we get into the class warfare that's been messing up the economic and political scene for the past few years.

Now there's a subject that affects everyone. Big time.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

...the Federal Reserve is a 12 member charter of private banks.

If that were true why would the Fed matter? I mean, you don't like it you can go form your own 'private charter'. Fact is that the Fed matters because it's created and funded by congress, controlled by the President, and it's how America's decided to regulate the value of its money. You got a better way let's hear it.

You wanna tell us how it's "controlled by the president"?

Please tell me what authority Obama has on ANYTHING the Fed does.

Well Arthur Burns once said that if the Fed didn't do what the President wants then it would lose its independence. I have little doubt that Ben Bernanke is doing exactly what Obama wants him to do.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

...What's happening here is that some study how money works so they can feed their families, others just live off the state...

No, what we have here is you...

Ah, you seem to prefer changing the subject from the Fed and money to me and what I'm doing. Maybe I should be flattered but ultimately I'm aware that I'm really not that important and definitely not that interesting. Money creating and the way people lose contact with reality in their hatred for the Fed is different. That's where we get into the class warfare that's been messing up the economic and political scene for the past few years.

Now there's a subject that affects everyone. Big time.

Why not talk about you? You're discussing everybody else's sanity, so I don't see why you shouldn't be fair game.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

”The Fed can’t easily unwind all of this stimulus.”

This seems true since the Fed bought a $trillion in mortgage backed securities, plus other stuff. If the economy ever got going, which it probably won't any more than Japan's ever did, Bernanke might have a very hard time unloading those bonds and other stuff and thus unleash the long awaited inflation.

Bernanke should emerge as the demon here since he is using the Fed's unlimited powers to create our zombie, Japan-like, no growth economy in the absense of Republican political leadership that in theory could fix the broad structural problems in the economy with capitalism and austerity. Bernanke should stand down saying its not the Fed's job and the Fed cant do the job anyway!!

 

[expat_panama]

....tell us how it's "controlled by the president"? Please tell me what authority Obama has on ANYTHING the Fed does.

OK let's get serious here; you've probably already heard about--
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRK6E1ruMDI]Obama Nominates Bernanke For A Second Fed Term - YouTube[/ame]
--and that would mean you don't consider Bernanke's role significant. This is the impasse I was just talking about, that we've got the president and congress naming everyone with power, they tell the Fed what it's supposed to do, the Fed reports regularly on their progress, and folks on these threads don't see any control.

Something more important here is the fact that the president and congress is chosen by the voters, and this popular refusal to see reality may be nothing more than a childlike denial of ultimate responsibility for creating and maintaining the Federal Reserve.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

I have little doubt that Ben Bernanke is doing exactly what Obama wants him to do.

sure but how is creating a zombie like Japanese economy helping?? The Fed does not invent new products so how can it help the economy???

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

I have little doubt that Ben Bernanke is doing exactly what Obama wants him to do.

sure but how is creating a zombie like Japanese economy helping?? The Fed does not invent new products so how can it help the economy???

I never said it was helping the economy.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

We never ever had a World War before the creation of the Fed. Coincidence?...

International Bankers didn't need the US Fed to finance World Wars, they did that on their own.

What ever your point is, it sounds like you've given up on blaming the Depression on the Fed.




Smart move.

why a smart move when Friedman felt the Fed caused the Great Depression?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

International Bankers didn't need the US Fed to finance World Wars, they did that on their own.

What ever your point is, it sounds like you've given up on blaming the Depression on the Fed.




Smart move.

why a smart move when Friedman felt the Fed caused the Great Depression?

Of course Friedman blamed them for not doing enough, rather than for doing too much which is the truth.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

HuffPo’s Myth #4: “The amount of cash available has grown tremendously.”

“Some Federal Reserve critics claim that the Fed has devalued the U.S. dollar through a massive expansion of the amount of currency in circulation,” says Kavoussi. “But not only is inflation low; currency growth also has not really changed since the Fed started its stimulus measures, as noted by Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal.”

This looks like another silly gotcha with definitions, like the “printing money” canard. The graph below shows that the currency component of M1 hasn’t shot up like a rocket, it’s true; but M1 itself (which consists of not just physical paper but also checking account deposits) has indeed risen sharply, notwithstanding the insights of Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal.

M2 - the more relevant number - has NOT risen nearly so much.

Nope.

Silly uneducated people. It's sad, but you have to laugh.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

....tell us how it's "controlled by the president"? Please tell me what authority Obama has on ANYTHING the Fed does.

OK let's get serious here; you've probably already heard about--
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRK6E1ruMDI]Obama Nominates Bernanke For A Second Fed Term - YouTube[/ame]
--and that would mean you don't consider Bernanke's role significant. This is the impasse I was just talking about, that we've got the president and congress naming everyone with power, they tell the Fed what it's supposed to do, the Fed reports regularly on their progress, and folks on these threads don't see any control.

Something more important here is the fact that the president and congress is chosen by the voters, and this popular refusal to see reality may be nothing more than a childlike denial of ultimate responsibility for creating and maintaining the Federal Reserve.

Wrong. They nominate and verify. based on advisory. Furthermore reporting regularly on it's CHARTERED (though expanded roles since inception) are it's mandates. The legislation would have to propose a new goal and vote. As it has done. However, that does not mean that the federal reserve does not run independently in monetary policy and market dealings. It does. Our last comical "audit" showed 7 trillion in secret loans to overseas banks on short order. We wouldn't have known that otherwise.

Try again and this time, be less condescending and more intelligent. I've dealt with you on this board and think you're a square poster, but the insults are trying that respect.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

What ever your point is, it sounds like you've given up on blaming the Depression on the Fed.




Smart move.

why a smart move when Friedman felt the Fed caused the Great Depression?

Of course Friedman blamed them for not doing enough, rather than for doing too much which is the truth.

no idea why you say that? A central bank will often and forgivably fail to maintain prices at a constant level in the very short run but if they know enough, as they now do, to always be correcting they are doing the best they can do. Friedman made it possible. He is our hero.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

why a smart move when Friedman felt the Fed caused the Great Depression?

Of course Friedman blamed them for not doing enough, rather than for doing too much which is the truth.

no idea why you say that? A central bank will often and forgivably fail to maintain prices at a constant level in the very short run but if they know enough, as they now do, to always be correcting they are doing the best they can do. Friedman made it possible. He is our hero.

Why would you want prices to remain constant? As for Friedman being our hero, I'm afraid you're going to have to speak for yourself.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Why would you want prices to remain constant?

so we get good price signals from the market telling us where to most effectively spend our money and thereby increase our standard of living.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Why would you want prices to remain constant?

so we get good price signals from the market telling us where to most effectively spend our money and thereby increase our standard of living.

Well who's us? Us consumers, or us producers? Price signals are for producers, and prices need to fluctuate to send those signals. If they remained constant they wouldn't be sending any signals.