April Fool, America...

[sarah]

Your money is worthless!

Today is the day to introduce awareness of the Fed and what it's doing to our dollar. A must-read, especially if you're a mainstream media follower. (You won't hear this there!) Also, Ron Paul is going to be on Glenn Beck today talking about the Fed as well. The show airs on CNN 3 times a day.

Article: link

Thanks for looking.

[USMC 0369]

Since it's worthless...

Can I have yours too?

thanks for the link... man this politics stuff is a full time job!!!

[Shadly1]

Oh man. Here's some history on the Federal Reserve. This came from Wikipedia. There's some great quotes from Milton Friedman and Ron Paul and a CLASSIC one from Ben Bernanke, the current chairman of the Fed.


Handling of The Great Depression
Milton Friedman, leader of the Chicago School, argued that the Federal Reserve System did not cause the Great Depression, but made it worse by contracting the money supply at the very moment that markets needed liquidity. Since its entire existence was predicated on its mission to prevent events like the Great Depression, it had failed in what the 1913 bill tried to enact.[74] Friedman explains his hypothesis on the cause of The Great Depression and the role the Federal Reserve played in it in his book and documentary series free to choose. An excerpt of his hypothesis:[75]

"the recession only became a crisis when these failures spread to New York and in particular to this building, then the headquarters of the Bank of United States. The failure of this bank had far reaching effects and need never have happened...Only a few blocks away is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It was here that the Bank of United States could have been saved. Indeed, the Federal Reserve System had been set up 17 years earlier precisely to prevent the worst consequences of bank failures...It was all a question of reassuring the public that they could get their money. The Federal Reserve System was there to ensure that this happened by supplying cash to the banks...Why didn't this system prevent The Great Depression after 1929? Because from 1929 to 1930 after the stock market crashed, the Federal Reserve system allowed the quantity of money to decline slowly thereby throttling the monetary structure...If the Federal Reserve had stepped in, bought government securities on a large scale, provided the cash, the depositors would have found that they could've got their money and they would have stopped asking for it...Despite excellent advice from New York, the system refused to buy government bonds, something which would have provided cash to the commercial banks with which they could have met more easily the insisted demands of their depositors. Instead, believe it or not, the system stood idly by while banks crashed on all sides. As the head of one of the banks put it, the reserve system had to keep its powder dry for a real emergency."

This is also the current conventional wisdom on the matter, as both Ben Bernanke and other economists such as the late John Kenneth Galbraith- the latter being an ardent Keynesian- have upheld this reasoning. In an interview with Peter Jaworski (The Journal, Queen's University, March 15, 2002 - Issue 37, Volume 129) Friedman also said that ideally he would "prefer to abolish the federal reserve system altogether" rather than try to reform it, because it was a flawed system in the first place. He later said he would like to "abolish the Federal Reserve and replace it with a computer", meaning that it would be a mechanical system in nature that would keep the quantity of money going up at a steady rate. Friedman also believed that, ideally, the issuing power of money should rest with the Government instead of private banks issuing money through fractional reserve lending.[76]

Ben Bernanke agreed that the Fed had made the Great Depression worse, saying in a 2002 speech:

"I would like to say to Milton [Friedman] and Anna [J. Schwartz]: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."[77][78]


Inflation

One major area of criticism focuses on the failure of the Federal Reserve System to stop inflation; this is seen as a failure of the Fed's legislatively mandated duty[13] to maintain stable prices. These critics focus particularly on inflation's effects on wages, since workers are hurt if their wages do not keep up with inflation.[79] They point out that wages, as adjusted for inflation, or real wages, have dropped in the past.[80]

Milton Friedman alleged that the Fed caused the high inflation of the 1970s. When asked about the greatest economic problem of the day, he said the most pressing was how to get rid of the Federal Reserve.[74] Friedman discusses the high inflation rate of the 1970's and other periods in Free to Choose:[81]

"Inflation is just like alcoholism. In both cases when you start drinking or when you start printing too much money, the good effects come first. The bad effects only come later...That's why in both cases there is a strong temptation to overdo it. To drink too much and to print too much money. When it comes to the cure, it's the other way around. When you stop drinking or when you stop printing money, the bad effects come first and the good effects only come later. That's why it's so hard to persist with the cure. In the United States, four times in the 20 years after 1957, we undertook the cure. But each time we lacked the will to continue. As a result, we had all the bad effects and none of the good effects."

United States Congressman Ron Paul, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy (of the House Banking Committee), has also criticized Federal Reserve policy for creating and downplaying excessive inflation:[82]

"This decline in the value of the dollar is simple to explain. The dollar loses value as the direct result of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury increasing the money supply. Inflation, as the late Milton Friedman explained, is always a monetary phenomenon. The federal government consistently wants to spend more than it can tax and borrow, so Congress turns to the Fed for help in covering the difference. The result is more dollars, both real and electronic-- which means the value of every existing dollar goes down...when the Fed sets interest rates artificially low, the cost of borrowing becomes cheap. Individuals incur greater amounts of debt, while businesses overextend themselves and grow without real gains in productivity. The bubble bursts quickly once the credit dries up and the bills cannot be paid...the Fed steadily increased the monetary supply throughout the 1990s by printing money. Recent Fed numbers show double-digit annual increases in the M2 money supply. These new dollars may make Americans feel richer, but the net result of monetary inflation has to be the devaluation of savings and purchasing power."

[blkTJ]

but the dow is up 368 points?!?!?

[Shadly1]

but the dow is up 368 points?!?!?

I'm still waiting for someone to yell "April Fools!"

[Roger]

It is all so depressing. There is nothing we can do about it. Whenever a candidate raises up to fight this they are shot down before they can get their message out. Ron Paul was one...

I guess Rick, Sarah, and I were the only ones in California that wanted to vote for him. . .

[Materdaddy]

It is all so depressing. There is nothing we can do about it. Whenever a candidate raises up to fight this they are shot down before they can get their message out. Ron Paul was one...

I guess Rick, Sarah, and I were the only ones in California that wanted to vote for him. . .

Not true... Materdaddy/Matermomma voted for him too!

[Desert Jewel]

and I voted for him too! and I know of several others that voted for him!

[Dukes69]

ok, so like 10 people?

[blkTJ]

I would have voted for him but I'm not a Republican.

[sarah]

I would have voted for him but I'm not a Republican.

... and you don't vote!!

Yes this is all very pathetic. Just keep writing to your congress-peoples and driving them nuts. They've stopped responding to me already (Next, read my sig, hehe)

[blkTJ]

I added that but then deleted it. jerk. :yay: :cactus: :cone:

[sarah]

I added that but then deleted it. jerk. :yay: :cactus: :cone:

Watch who you're callin' a jerk :cactus:

[Kodiak Spirit]

We both voted for him... and I have given out over 100 "HELLNO2HILLARY" stickers... so I'm trying.... Kinda...

[Shadly1]

We both voted for him... and I have given out over 100 "HELLNO2HILLARY" stickers... so I'm trying.... Kinda...

Where can I get some of those?