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The Importance of “Fedspeak” | Mises Institute

Posted by M. C. on May 30, 2020

At the conclusion of the Fed meeting,

Members agreed that the Federal Reserve was committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time, thereby promoting its maximum employment and price stability goals.

Fed speak for “We don’t have a clue”

https://mises.org/power-market/importance-fedspeak?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=ea7dac162c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-ea7dac162c-228343965

Robert Aro

The Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines “Fedspeak” as:

(informal) Impenetrable economic jargon used by the US Federal Reserve.

It’s not a condition that affects the chair of the Federal Reserve only; the wave of Fedspeak has been exhibited by members of its inner circle as well. Just last week, in a speech made to the New York Association for Business Economics, Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida said:

On March 16, we launched a program to purchase Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities in whatever amounts needed to support smooth market functioning, thereby fostering effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions.

More than $2 trillion were spent on these two asset purchases alone—a figure so large on a subject known to so few. Most will be unable to grasp what this implies for their own lives and future. When the vice chair says that the purchases help “support smooth market function,” who can stand up and ask him to succinctly define this? And further, who will challenge the assertion? How “smoothly” should a market function, and when will they know when it’s smooth enough?

The problem is that this tinkering with the money supply affects the majority of society, i.e., those who are not financially well-to-do central bankers. Ultimately, it’s those on Main Street who will pay for this intervention while buried in an avalanche of debt and stuck at home under government quarantine. Who has time to decode the reflections of a central banker? Thus, it continues. Main Street remains in the dark, guided by those who are equally blind to the principles of economics.

Fedspeak knows no bounds, as its reach has even infiltrated the European Central Bank (ECB), whose latest meeting minutes show a similar use of nebulous ideas when looking at the various risks to economic activity that the virus caused. They noted:

Attention was drawn to the fact that precautionary saving was already increasing and, if consumers did not regain confidence quickly after containment measures were lifted, there was a risk that demand would remain depressed.

The comment alludes to an ideal equilibrium that the virus has thrown off and that therefore requires intervention. Naturally, the central banker sees a problem with savings and demand, he just cannot articulate what the problem is in any discernible way. It is implied that an increase in savings and a decrease in demand, which may be partly due to a lack of confidence, pose a risk to the economy. But how much savings is too much? And how much demand is too little? This remains unknown to all except the central banker.

The Fed’s meeting minutes, also released last week, were no different. Almost as if the Fed and the ECB had had the same meeting, the Fed similarly observed that:

household spending would likely be held down by a decrease in confidence and an increase in precautionary saving.

They use these types of subjective observations, combined with data points, in order to plan the economy. Nearly imperceptibly, they justify their actions with sentences making subjective claims. The importance of Fedspeak cannot be understated. If the general public, academia, and elected officials demanded that the Fed prove how much stimulus, demand, savings, and money supply are needed to save the economy, the very existence of the Fed could be thrown into question. This would be a great thing for society, but very bad for the Fed and the economists it employs.

At the conclusion of the Fed meeting,

Members agreed that the Federal Reserve was committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time, thereby promoting its maximum employment and price stability goals.

With nine credit facilities already running or soon to be in place, the Fed will print as much money as possible to make sure any crisis will be contained. At that point we can only hope that the public will not be looking to the Fed for answers, partly because the Fed is the cause of the problem, but also because any explanation would amount to nothing more than “impenetrable economic jargon.”

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A Black Swan With Teeth | SchiffGold

Posted by M. C. on May 28, 2020

From his basement-based presidential campaign, Joe Biden has repeatedly asserted that trade-offs between safety and economic activity are a “false choice,” and that any policies that may just prevent “one more death” should be implemented, no matter the costs. Such claims are symptomatic of a politician who prefers cheap posturing to reality.

The insanity of this idea can be seen in California, a state under total control of the Democrats. Despite a per capita death rate that is less than 30% of the national average, based on current data from Wolrldometer, the state seems to be prepared to commit economic suicide.

https://schiffgold.com/commentaries/a-black-swan-with-teeth/

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For years, I have been warning that during the age of permanent stimulus (which began in earnest with the Federal Reserve’s reaction to the dotcom crash of 2000), each successive economic contraction would have to be met with ever larger, increasingly ineffective, doses of monetary and fiscal stimulus to keep the economy from spiraling into depression. I have also said that the enormity of the asset price gains over the last 10 years had increased the danger because reflating the bloated stock, real estate, and public and private debt markets would bring on doses of stimulus that could prove lethal for the economy. But even though I expected that the next financial crisis would be catastrophic, I thought that it would come into the world in the usual way, as a credit crisis triggered by over-leverage. But the Coronavirus ripped up those stage notes, and instead ushered in a threat that is faster and deeper than I imagined, and I imagined a lot. It’s a perfect storm, a black swan with teeth.

Even in my most pessimistic assessments, I did not expect that so many seemingly distant sectors of the economy would simultaneously evaporate, almost overnight, or that government deficits would expand to nearly $4 trillion in the first wave of the crisis, or that the Federal Reserve would so suddenly launch its largest-ever experiment in quantitative easing, (with almost none of the forward guidance they have used to telegraph lesser moves), which would expand its balance sheet by more than $3 trillion in a matter of just a few months. Nor did I expect that at its outset the Fed’s new buying plan would include, for the first time, corporate bonds and high yield debt ETFs. (I thought those expansions would come eventually, not immediately.)

To make matters even worse, the crisis has struck in the midst of a presidential election year, which guarantees that every policy decision has been made through a political prism. Democrats are seizing on the crisis to paint the Trump Administration as incompetent, ineffective and uncaring, often twisting themselves into knots to do so. (Trump has done himself no favors by using his daily briefings to showcase his inconsistent policy positions, combative political style, and his tenuous grasp of medical concepts.) So, in contrast to prior national crises that had tended to pull the country together (think 9/11), this event is tearing us apart.

But there is one thing upon which both sides seem to agree: the need for the Federal government to shower the economy with newly created money, bail out everyone who can claim that the virus “was not their fault,” and to fully liquefy the financial markets. The result has been an increase in government spending that dwarfs everything we have ever seen in the past, including the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis. The $3 trillion increase in Federal debt accumulated this spring may just be the beginning.

The major political differences now center on matters of degree, particularly how long the economy should remain closed and how many jobs, businesses, and family financial plans should be exchanged for each life that may be saved through extended lockdowns. This is where it gets ugly. Read the rest of this entry »

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EconomicPolicyJournal.com: China’s Crypto Is All About Tracing — and Power

Posted by M. C. on May 24, 2020

It is known that the Federal Reserve is quietly working in the
background on an eFed digital coin. This coin must be aggressively
fought and not allowed to be introduced.

The introduction of a government-controlled digital currency would be a
very immediate danger to liberty and only grow over time.

https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2020/05/chinas-crypto-is-all-about-tracing-and.html

This is very disturbing.

Bloomberg reports:

The coronavirus has disrupted the world in very large ways. While that battle has been waged, however, another event has almost been missed: the birth of a new kind of fiat currency, which could forever reshape the relationship between money, economic power and geopolitical clout.

An official Chinese digital yuan, more than five years in the making, is now in pilot runs to slowly start replacing the physical legal tender. If the experiment succeeds, this new cash, valued the same as the familiar banknotes bearing Mao Zedong’s image, will become the world’s first sovereign token to reside exclusively in the ether…

According to media reports, half the May transport subsidy for Suzhou municipal employees will be in the form of digital currency electronic payment, or DCEP, as it’s being called in the absence of a catchier moniker. The pilot plan in Xiong’an, a satellite city of Beijing, includes coffee shops, fast food, retailers, theaters and bookstores, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has noted. The other trials are reserved for Chengdu and Shenzhen… the anonymity of cash will no longer exist. Authorities can look under the hood of pseudonymous transactions for unwanted activity, an outcome far removed from the vision that drove libertarians (and money launderers) to cryptocurrencies in the first place.

I early on warned of the dangers of digital currencies and how highly traceable they were, so although some libertarians have cheered on digital currencies not all have and it is an error to not make that distinction clear. There is nothing inherently libertarian about digital currencies.

But more significant, I don’t believe most understand the biggest danger of such currencies. While tracing transactions that are made is horrific, if a country adopts an all-digital currency format it will mean the government can censor any book, any magazine or any other good it wants since it will have near real-time information on who might be violating such a ban.

It is known that the Federal Reserve is quietly working in the background on an eFed digital coin. This coin must be aggressively fought and not allowed to be introduced.

The introduction of a government-controlled digital currency would be a very immediate danger to liberty and only grow over time.

–RW

(ht Chris Barcelo)

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The Biggest Heist in Human History | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on April 12, 2020

This, of course, is pretty much the definition of how money-laundering works….

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-biggest-heist-in-human-history/

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As he valiantly tried to get a recorded vote on House passage of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus bill (the CARE Act), Rep. Thomas Massie learned once again last month the chief difference between the members of Congress and the inmates of a maximum security prison: Supermax prison inmates have better character than members of Congress. 

He should have known this already, since few inmates of a maximum security prisons would say that the ongoing drone-killing of children and warring on al-Qaida’s behalf is morally necessary, as the majority of congressmen did. 

In this instance, however, the congressional moral turpitude was financial. It’s unimaginable to think of prisoners bragging about how their actions just swindled a gaggle of plumbers, waitresses and department store clerks out of their homes, but if you listened to the speeches of congressmen passing the bill, you’d think those clerks who will lose their homes should be grateful.   

Sure, lots of prisoners have been incarcerated for robbery, but they almost always rob from the rich. Congress used this bill to rob from the poor and working people in order to subsidize mega-corporations and banks from the tips of waitresses. “Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen,” Woodie Guthrie once sang, but “as through your life you roam, you will never see an outlaw drive a family from their home.”  

The bill admittedly contained $300 billion in cash payments to citizens, but – thanks in part to a $454 billion accordion program through the Federal Reserve Bank – more than ten times that amount will go in the form of cash subsidies and discount loans to big banks and giant corporations. The bill is not really a $2.2 trillion bill, but is instead a $6 trillion bill, the overwhelming majority of which will go to politically-connected corporations and banks.

$454 billion into $4 trillion

The New York Times explained how the Fed can get $454 billion and turn it into $4 trillion: “Legally, the Fed is not allowed to buy debt that is not backed by the government. To achieve a degree of separation, it sets up a special purpose vehicle and then lends into it — which is why all of these programs are called ’emergency lending.’ The vehicle then snaps up bonds or makes loans to the private sector.” 

This, of course, is pretty much the definition of how money-laundering works….

“And just to take one small example for people to think about: One of the new forms of assistance that was different in this bill from 2008 is that the Fed and the Treasury are now going to be buying corporate bonds. So last time around the government basically spent a lot to prop up the mortgage markets. They bought mortgage-backed securities; they took bad mortgage assets off the books of the banks. That was one of the big things they did. This time they are expanding that activity to buying the debt of companies and supporting the bond market, which is a whole new galaxy of support.” …

The reality is that panicked Karen government officials engaged in an insane experiment of national economic shutdown without any understanding of the science of what would happen. The government officials were never asked by the corporate media any of the following questions: 

1. If the “flatten the curve” strategy isn’t part of the federal government’s official strategy (and it’s NOT even mentioned in official documents), how can it work nationally?

2. How long do you think you can keep the shutdown going before food riots begin? How much of a new Great Depression are you willing to create in order to keep this shutdown going?

3. Do you expect your shutdown/“social distancing” campaign to abolish the virus completely?

4. At what point do you return to people working? How many infections – domestically and internationally – is the minimum number that keeps the shutdown going?

5. Do you really think Bangladesh, South Sudan and Haiti will “flatten the curve” by shutting down their economies to fight coronavirus? What do you do when poor countries understandably don’t follow our lead because they don’t want famine?

6. What do you do after the shutdown ends and that virus comes back out of control, either in the US domestically or internationally? If internationally, do you impose a blockade and create a famine in poor nations with tens of millions of dead? Bomb them into submission?

7. Do you think the disease will become less contagious once the shutdowns end? How can you guarantee we won’t have to re-impose a shutdown?

8. How do you re-impose a shutdown while we’re already in a depression with 20% unemployment and a bankrupt government? How do you think workers will take a new shutdown when Washington has no more money to dole out?

But government officials still need to be made to answer these questions, and should have before they imposed the shutdown. Americans need to grab a pair of Rowdy “Roddy” Piper’s glasses from “Them,” wake up the zombie quaranqueens, and demand answers to these questions along with an end to the economic shutdown to limit the accumulating damage. 

Then, they need to put a stop to the greatest heist in the history of the world. The $2 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street is only the beginning. Unfortunately, more is coming unless the people demand it stop.

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The ‘Coronavirus’ Worm Has Turned: It Is Now Time To Face the Truth – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on April 9, 2020

When the Fed brags about it’s “tools” they amount to nothing but a plastic hammer. The Fed knows a massive correction (recession) is in the cards due to their easy money. They don’t have a clue as to how to remedy this situation.

The correction is the remedy.

The take away is bailout money is not going to you. Boeing, McDonnel Douglas, bankster cronies and boondoggles like solar panels, electric cars and politically correct social engineering projects will reap the benefit.

It is a bad sign that many companies previously bailed out are no longer viable. Think Obama’s electric car poster boy – Chevy Volt. Bankrupt solar panel and electric car battery companies.

The other item is no reserve banking. Until now banks had to keep something like 15% in reserve for people withdrawing savings.

That is now zero.

Theoretically a bank can now lend out every penny of customers savings leaving nothing for withdrawal.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/04/gary-d-barnett/the-coronavirus-worm-has-turned-it-is-now-time-to-face-the-truth/

By

“A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.” ~ George Orwell (1956). “The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage”, New York : Harcourt, Brace

It is time for some hard truth that seems to escape nearly every American, but in reality, it is truth that is purposely hidden from view by the entirety of the mainstream. With this coronavirus fraud, the bigger picture is left in the shadows, and this of course is by design, and easy to accomplish in a country consumed by fear. The bigger picture that is only being addressed by a small number of people is the real elephant in the room, but virtually invisible to the masses. This is certainly due to deceit and corruption, but also is made so complicated as to assure that the common man does not understand it, and in fact will not pursue the real story behind this pandemic facade. These hidden enemies of all people and freedom are the Federal Reserve Banks and those controlling the monetary system.

If one travels back in time just a few years to the 2008 economic breakdown, many lessons could be learned, but apparently never were learned by those most adversely affected by such criminal behavior. During what should have been a collapse, banks and corporations, mostly those favored by the political class and the Federal Reserve, were all bailed out at the expense of the taxpayers. Actually, most everyone in this country was harmed except those favored players, but buying up the markets and claiming to save the country by printing money out of thin air has led to this current situation now in place. The economic debacle faced by all in this country today is not only far greater than what happened in 2008, but is not even comparable at any level. It is the equivalent of comparing a gentle rainstorm to a Category 5 hurricane.

Since the average person, and frankly most all others as well, ignore the workings of the Federal Reserve, it is time to expose what is actually going on with this criminal and scandalous private central banking system, and how this false flag called the Covid-19 pandemic is being used by the Fed to achieve agendas that will change the economic structure of this country and others forever. This is no accident, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with coronavirus, but that excuse is the impetus for restructuring the entire monetary system. A statement issued by the Federal Reserve through the Federal Open Market Committee on March 15th of this year stated that due to the coronavirus outbreak:

“The Federal Reserve is prepared to use its full range of tools to support the flow of credit to households and businesses and thereby promote its maximum employment and price stability goals.”

This surpasses propaganda, and is an outright lie with very sinister intent, as the Federal Reserve fully understands that increasing its balance sheet reserves has absolutely nothing to do with helping average people, households, or businesses in this country. Those reserves are not bank money, and cannot and will not ever be distributed to common people. In fact, all bank reserve requirements have been eliminated, so no reserves are now even necessary for banks to make loans. The entire process is a fraud, and is only meant to prop up the Fed so as to bail out its allies in crime in banking and corporate America, not those families being purposely destroyed due to a lie.

The U.S. economy has continued to worsen since the 2008 housing disaster and banking implosion, and has continued on its way to an imminent collapse. The Fed claims to be printing massive amounts of money and increasing its reserves due only to this coronavirus scare, but that is ludicrous and is also a flagrant lie. In September of last year, well before the so-called coronavirus pandemic was known, the Fed was in a dire position, and began dramatically increasing its balance sheet reserves and daily repurchase agreement (REPOs) “loans” to the banking sector, this in advance of any virus, not due to it. Massive Fed and banking problems began many years ago, and have worsened continuously, causing this economy to be on the edge of total failure. This has been known for a long time, so given the obvious lies, it is prudent to ask if this coronavirus was created as a cover for a failed economy. In my opinion, that is not only possible but also probable.

The 2 trillion dollar bailout also said to be for working Americans is also a lie, as only a few pennies on the dollar will ever get to working people. The bulk of all monetary distribution, and handouts will go to the inside accomplices at the top of the heap. Anyone paying attention should understand that all government is based on lies, deceit, corruption, and power growth, and the only way to achieve success in this atrocious venture is to retain tight control over the populace by striking fear in the hearts of all of society. Hence the coronavirus, which if purposely manufactured and introduced or not, is being used to accomplish agendas that are so far-reaching as to be nearly impossible to conceive. I lean heavily toward the side of this virus and the politics of fear being intentionally created, and that the panic and manipulation was due to a false pandemic, and not an accidental event. While this position will seem extreme to most, time will change that posture. The biggest world governance and monetary reset in history is coming soon due to this ruse.

The government that is telling you they are going to save you from a virus is the same government that is going to destroy your lives. That same government is expecting and leveling economic destruction on the country, and the Fed stated that unemployment just in this quarter alone would reach 32%, which equates to 47 million people out of work. Rocket science is not required to figure out the ramifications of this kind of unemployment tragedy. It is possible that before or during the third quarter of this year unemployment per capita could be double what it was at the height of the Great Depression.  This is something that cannot be overcome by Fed policy or political interference, and in fact would signal an end to this economic system.

What will you do when the banks close? What will you do when you have no access to savings due to a monetary collapse? What will you do when riots, looting, and civil unrest are a normal part of your lives? What will you do when it is too late to do anything?

Keep in mind that the Fed balance sheet, money that will never be seen by any normal citizen, will most likely reach 10 trillion to 12 trillion dollars in the near future. Consider that regardless of any more coronavirus aid packages created by government, that little if any will reach or help the general population, but will go to government cronies. Consider that any and every “emergency” declared by government in the future will lead to in-house imprisonment, as has been openly admitted by the current administration officials. Consider the prospect of living in fear and isolation for life!

This is much more complicated and sinister than I can present here, but we are in the midst of a complete global restructuring of the monetary system, and one that will be devastating to all but those few with trillions in assets and in the most powerful positions. The rest of us will not only suffer, but will be left with poverty, despair, and death. This coming global reorganization, whether its finality is during this current “crisis” or not, is now inevitable in my opinion unless a very dramatic turnaround by the masses is forthcoming. Without a mass uprising against this tyranny, this nightmare will never end.

I cannot know exactly how this will turn out, but the writing on the wall would indicate that an abolishment of the world economic and monetary systems, and replacement with a new system is in the works. One thing is certain, if I am right about this, it was planned long ago, and all the pieces have been put into place to construct a new world economic order.

See this link to gain an understanding of current Fed fraud and of government corruption during this current crisis.

Also see these links here, here, here.

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The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Central Banking is Socialism

Posted by M. C. on March 10, 2020

Allowing the central bank to buy assets of, and thus assume a partial ownership interest in, private companies would give the Federal Reserve even greater influence over the economy. It could also allow the Fed to advance a political agenda by, for example, favoring investment in “green energy” companies over other companies or refusing to purchase assets of retailers who sell firearms or tobacco products.

The essence of socialist economics is government allocation of resources either by seizing direct control of the “means of production” or by setting prices business can charge.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2020/march/09/central-banking-is-socialism/

Written by Ron Paul

Last week, the Federal Reserve responded to Wall Street’s coronavirus panic with an “emergency” interest rate cut. This emergency cut failed to revive the stock market, leading to predictions that the Fed will again cut rates later this month.

More rate cuts would drive interest rates to near, or even below, zero. Lowering interest rates punishes people for saving, thus encouraging consumers and businesses to spend every penny they make. This may give the economy a short-term boost. But, it inhibits long-term economic growth by depleting the savings necessary for investments in businesses and jobs. The result of this policy will be more pressure on the Fed to indefinitely maintain low interest rates and on the Congress and president to create another explosion of government “stimulus” spending.

Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren has suggested that Congress allow the Federal Reserve to add assets of private companies to the Fed’s already large balance sheet. Allowing the central bank to buy assets of, and thus assume a partial ownership interest in, private companies would give the Federal Reserve even greater influence over the economy. It could also allow the Fed to advance a political agenda by, for example, favoring investment in “green energy” companies over other companies or refusing to purchase assets of retailers who sell firearms or tobacco products.

Mr. Rosengren’s proposal to allow the central bank to “invest,” in private companies seems like something one would hear from democratic socialists like Senator Bernie Sanders. This is not surprising since the entire Federal Reserve system is a textbook example of socialism.

The essence of socialist economics is government allocation of resources either by seizing direct control of the “means of production” or by setting prices business can charge. Federal Reserve manipulation of interest rates is an attempt to set the price of money. Federal Reserve attempts to set interest rates distort the signals sent by the rates to investors and business. This results in a Fed-created boom, which is inevitably followed by a Fed-created bust.

Economic elites benefit when the Federal Reserve pumps new money into the economy because they have access to the money created before there are widespread price increases. Artificially low interest rates also facilitate the growth of the welfare-warfare state.

The Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies harm the average American by eroding the dollar’s purchasing power. This forces consumers to rely on credit cards and other forms of debt to maintain their standard of living. Many Americans are unable to afford their own homes because they are saddled with student loan debt that can even exceed their income.

Since the bailouts of 2008, there has been a growing understanding that the current system is rigged in favor of the elites and against the average American. Unfortunately, popular confusion of our system of Keynesian neoliberalism with a free-market economy, combined with a widespread entitlement mentality, has led many Americans to support increasing government control of our economy.

The key to beating back the rising support for socialism on both the left and right is helping more people understand that big government and central banking are the cause of their problems and that free markets in all areas — and especially in money — is the solution. It is important that the liberty movement put pressure on Congress to cut spending and rein in or, better yet, end the Fed.

Copyright © 2020 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
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Can the Fed Save Us From Climate Change? – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2020

Science is rarely settled as today’s new discoveries disprove yesterday’s consensus. In the case of climate change, many scientists dispute the claim that absent massive expansion of government power a climate apocalypse will soon be at hand.

Whatever policies the Fed adopts to protect the financial system from climate change, the result will be further erosion of the dollar’s purchasing power, increased government control over the economy, lower economic growth, increased crony capitalism, and a reduction in liberty and prosperity.

Think Chevy Volt, solar panel and EV car battery manufacturer subsidies.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2020/march/02/can-the-fed-save-us-from-climate-change/

Written by Ron Paul

The 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Act requires the Federal Reserve to “promote” stable prices and full employment. Of course, the Fed’s steady erosion of the dollar’s purchasing power has made prices anything but stable, while the boom-and-bust cycle created by the Fed ensures that periods of low unemployment will not last for long. Despite the difficulties the Fed faces fulfilling its “dual mandate,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently announced a new Fed mandate: to protect the financial system from being destabilized by climate change.

Powell appears to have bought into the propaganda that “the science is settled” regarding the existence, causes, and effects of climate change. But the statement “the science is settled” is itself unscientific. Science is rarely settled as today’s new discoveries disprove yesterday’s consensus. In the case of climate change, many scientists dispute the claim that absent massive expansion of government power a climate apocalypse will soon be at hand.

So far, the Fed’s actions regarding climate change include holding a conference and Chairman Powell indicating the Fed is likely to join the Network for Greening the Financial System. This network is composed in part of central banks from around the world that are attempting to work together to assess the risks of, and plan possible responses to, climate change.

While Powell has not given details regarding other actions the Fed might take to protect the financial system from climate change, there are a number of actions that the Fed could take. For starters, Powell could signal that the Fed would be willing to increase its purchase of government debt if Congress passes Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. The Fed, since its creation, has been monetizing federal debt, and thus enabling the growth of the welfare-warfare state.

The Fed could implement “Green Quantitative Easing” by purchasing bonds of green energy and other companies whose products fit the environmentalist agenda. The Fed could also use its monetary and regulatory authority to “encourage” financial institutions to support “environmentally-friendly” businesses.

Whatever policies the Fed adopts to protect the financial system from climate change, the result will be further erosion of the dollar’s purchasing power, increased government control over the economy, lower economic growth, increased crony capitalism, and a reduction in liberty and prosperity.

Ironically, the Fed’s plans to address climate change will harm the environment. History shows that the most effective way to protect the environment is via a system of private property rights and free markets. Private property owners are better stewards of the environment than are government bureaucrats because private property owners have greater incentives to maintain the value of their property. This is why the greatest pollution in history was in the communist countries of the 20th century.

The Fed’s failure to provide any details on how it will carry out its self-imposed climate change mandate is another reason why Congress must rein in the secretive, rogue central bank. A step in restoring a monetary policy that truly promotes prosperity is to pass the Audit the Fed bill so Congress and the people can at last learn the full truth about the Federal Reserve.

Copyright © 2020 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

 

 

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Elephants Unseen – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on February 12, 2020

Thanks for your service!!! It may be a service indeed to the military/industrial complex, but the typical American only knows he’s paying for it—or else. You were probably thrilled to learn that the U.S. now has a new branch of the military, the Space Force, which will serve us by bringing democracy to Martians.

But isn’t it interesting that in the movies servants do as their masters dictate, whereas the “public servants” have US do as THEY dictate.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/02/paul-hein/elephants-unseen/

By

Certain ideas, although as outrageous as elephants in the living room, are not perceived as such because, while present, their presence is so common and expected as to render them virtually invisible. But perhaps, one day, maybe on awakening from a nap, we see them clearly and wonder “What are THEY doing here? Have I been blind?” The answer, of course, is “yes.”

MONEY

If you ask someone to show you money, you will very likely be shown a dollar bill. You object: but it’s just a piece of paper! Ah, you are told, perhaps rather smugly, “We don’t need to use metals for money. We use paper for money.” But in that case, why isn’t there ten times as much paper in a TEN as in a ONE dollar bill? Afer a moment of confusion, your correspondent corrects himself. “Well, the paper isn’t actually the money, but a promise to pay money. It’s clearly labeled a NOTE.” That would be an end of the matter, were it true, but it isn’t. The company issuing the note—the Federal Reserve—will laugh at you if you present one of their notes for payment. If you look up the law establishing the Federal Reserve, you will find that its notes are “obligations of the United States,” meaning, of course, that they are obligations of the taxpayers. What an elephant! The banking cartel can go into the marketplace and use its “notes” to buy whatever it needs from the very people who will ultimately be expected to redeem the notes!

In fact, however, the notes are self-redeeming. Years ago I sent a Federal Reserve Note to the secretary of the Treasury, William Miller, with the request that he do whatever was required by law to satisfy the obligation of the United States. He promptly replied that his only obligation was to return my note, which he did. In other words, a Federal Reserve Note/government obligation redeems itself. An IOU payable with—another IOU! A veritable gang of elephants running amok through our society— and that’s just a small part of the herd!

PUBLIC SERVANTS

When a prominent politician dies or retires, you will, without a doubt, hear him referred to as a “public servant.” We will be told that a nation is grateful for his years of service, and that as a mere youth, he aspired to a career as a public servant. Another whopper of an unseen elephant, perhaps because few, if any of us, have servants, or have even encountered a servant, except in the movies. But isn’t it interesting that in the movies servants do as their masters dictate, whereas the “public servants” have US do as THEY dictate. And if you actually found yourself blessed (?) with servants, would you expect them to sit you down and tell you how you were to behave, what you had to do, or not do, how much you were to pay them, what their hours would be, and how you would be punished for disobedience?

The traffic cop who tickets you for traveling five miles over the speed limit will also be referred to as a public servant, which, evidently, must mean that he is “serving” you when you gives you that ticket. And the judge in traffic court—another servant—is serving you when he fines you for committing this non-crime. What kind of servants deprive you of your money or your freedom?

A contestant on a TV quiz show, if a veteran, will likely be thanked for his service by the host. His “service” might have consisted in imposing our Rulers’ will—-democracy!!!—upon befuddled natives in some poor mid-east country, but let’s not quibble. Thanks for your service!!! It may be a service indeed to the military/industrial complex, but the typical American only knows he’s paying for it—or else. You were probably thrilled to learn that the U.S. now has a new branch of the military, the Space Force, which will serve us by bringing democracy to Martians.

Wake up and discover the pachyderm on your sofa. You’d be better off if he were to leave.

Be seeing you

 

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The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : How Congress and the Federal Reserve Stole Christmas

Posted by M. C. on December 24, 2019

Inflation is nothing more than a hidden and regressive tax. Auditing and ending the Fed should thus be a top priority of those concerned about rising income inequality and poverty, as well as those dreaming of a Christmas free of 2,000-page omnibus spending bills.

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2019/december/23/how-congress-and-the-federal-reserve-stole-christmas/

Written by Ron Paul

The bickering over impeachment did not stop the president and Congress from coming together last week to avert a government shutdown by passing a 1.4 trillion dollar spending package.

The bipartisan agreement has something for everyone — a 22 billion dollars increase to bring total spending on militarism to 738 billion dollars, and a 27 billion dollars increase to bring total spending on domestic programs to 632 billion dollars. It also imposes a national ban on selling tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to anyone under 21.

The agreement was split into two bills. Both bills were unveiled last Monday afternoon. The bills passed the House on Tuesday, so only the House leadership and the members of the Appropriations Committee (and their staffs) who helped write the over 2,000-page deal had any idea what was in the bills. But most members voted for the spending bills because they were fearful of backlash over another Christmastime government shutdown. House leadership simply “waived” the rule requiring that all legislation be available at least three days before being voted upon.

The modern practice of funding the government via gigantic omnibus bills that are rushed into law puts the growth of government on autopilot. This practice also gives the president more influence over the budget, violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution’s grant of authority to Congress to appropriate funds, which was intended as a check on executive power.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve continues pumping billions into the repurchasing market. When the Fed began injecting money into the market in September, it said intervention was a temporary measure to address a short-term liquidity shortage. Three months later, the Fed is not only continuing to bail out the repurchasing market, it is preparing for other bailouts. This is further evidence that we are on the verge of another Fed-created economic crisis.

When the crisis hits, the best thing the Fed could do is not to lower interest rates below the levels set by the market. This would allow consumers, businesses, and government to liquidate their debt and restore a sound foundation for future growth. If the Fed did not interfere with the painful but necessary correction, it would only be a short time before a real economic boom commenced.

The Federal Reserve is unlikely to follow this path because of the short-term pain it would cause debt-ridden consumers and, more importantly, the pain it would cause politicians who would be forced to cut spending and/or raise taxes. But continuing to artificially lower interest rates will inevitably result in an economic crisis brought about by a rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status.

The Federal Reserve’s manipulation of interest rates depreciates the dollar’s value, enabling the growth of the welfare-warfare state while enriching the insiders who receive the new money before prices rise. The brunt of dollar depreciation is felt by middle- and working-class Americans whose paychecks do not keep up with the rising cost of living.

Inflation is nothing more than a hidden and regressive tax. Auditing and ending the Fed should thus be a top priority of those concerned about rising income inequality and poverty, as well as those dreaming of a Christmas free of 2,000-page omnibus spending bills.

Be seeing you

For-Money-Fish-1stOct2017-850x720.jpg

 

 

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Of Two Minds – OK Boomer, OK Fed

Posted by M. C. on December 19, 2019

https://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec19/OK-fed12-19.html?fullweb=1

Charles Hugh Smith

Eventually the younger generations will connect all the economic injustices implicit in ‘OK Boomer’ with the Fed.

Much of the cluelessness and economic inequality behind the OK Boomer meme is the result of Federal Reserve policies that have favored those who already own the assets (Boomers) that the Fed has relentlessly pumped higher, to the extreme disadvantage of younger generations who were not given the opportunity to buy assets cheap and ride the Fed wave higher.

OK Fed: you’ve destroyed price discovery, driven housing out of reach of all but the wealthy and hollowed out the economy, all the while patting yourselves on the back for being so smart and fabulous.

OK Fed: you’ve waged generational war without even acknowledging how disastrous your policies have been for younger generations. You’ve bloated the paper wealth of everyone old enough to have bought a home 20, 30 or 40 years ago and who’s had a Corporate America or government job who’s seen their 401K or pension soar because “the Fed has our back” and Fed policies have inflated one bubble in stocks and bonds after another for 25 years.

OK Fed: as a direct consequence of your free-money-for-financiers policies, inflation has gutted the purchasing power of younger generations. As the bogus consumer price (CPI) claims inflation is near-zero year after year, two generations of Americans have been crushed by student loan debt that tops $1.5 trillion– a debt serfdom that would have been impossible had interest rates been settled by market forces.

The clueless higher education cartel would have been forced to innovate decades ago rather than pass on their administrative bloat to those least able to pay, the students. Without the Fed and other federal agencies, student debt would not have exploded.

OK Fed: as a direct consequence of your pump-up-speculative-excess policies, speculation has ruined the U.S. economy as banks, financiers and corporations all skim hundreds of billions of dollars via leveraging Fed cheap money while younger generations get credit cards with nosebleed interest rates and rapacious banks that charge $25 and up for every overdraft that they engineer by manipulating when deposits are credited.

OK Fed: while you’ve been hectoring young people to buy assets so they can join your speculative asset-bubble party, they’ve been dealing with the broken mess of an economy you’ve created while patting yourself on the back, an economy where only the already-wealthy can buy a house in hot job market regions, where young workers have to work crazy-hard to keep their precarious jobs or get by on the gig economy, a happy-story code phrase for an economy in which corporations have transferred the risk to their workers while they get rich buying back their own shares with cheap Fed money.

OK Fed: eventually the younger generations will connect all the economic injustices implicit in OK Boomer with the Fed that created the ever-widening wealth and income inequality between the generations: those who effortlessly rode the Fed’s asset-bubbles to wealth and those who have been priced out of the assets and left the shards of a once-functioning economy, an economy destroyed by the Fed’s toxic worship of speculative exploitation and serial asset-bubbles.

As I have repeatedly observed here: if we don’t change the way money is created and distributed by the Fed, we change nothing.

 

 

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