http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan108.html

Should We Kill the Fed?
by Patrick J. Buchanan

*** begin quote ***

Should not this creature from Jekyll Island, for all its manifold crimes and sins against the republic, also be summarily put to death?

*** end quote ***

The Federal Reserve Bank!

It’s neither ‘federal” since not even the US Congress can get its books audited.

It “reserves” nothing; it merely manipulates and prints.

And, it’s not a “bank”.

So what is it?

What is the creature from Jekyll Island?

(The name comes from the location of a secret collusion between bankers where the arrangement was hammered out.)

It’s a price fixing cartel a la OPEC for “american” banks.

As PJB alludes, Andrew Jackson must be rolling over in his grave, he killed one of it’s predecessors the “United States Bank”.

Of course, I agree that if we had commodity money, we would NOT have the artificial booms and busts that come with manipulating interest rates. Interest rates are the key indicator to business as to what projects are worth doing and what are not. AND, without a fiat currency, (where the Fed prints all the Congress can spend), the Congress would be restrained in its spending. AND, our poor and those on fixed income wouldn’t have to pay the brunt of the “inflation tax”.

Before leaving the Gold Standard in 1913 and before the FED embarked on manipulating us for the benefit of the rich and their banks, America was in decades of stable slightly declining prices. Money was a stable store of value.

(“Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” p116 in my novel “CHURCH 10●19●62”)

How does one plan in post WW1 Germany, Argentina in the 80’s, Zimbabwe today, or the USA in the next decade? Runaway inflation of the money supply and high interest rates are going to hurt everyone.

I have only heard one real objection and one minor objection to the Gold Standard.

Bob Brinker (bobbrinker dot com) had the minor objection that there would no ability for the government to supply stimulus to the economy with monetary policy. That’s is the problem, Bob; the politicians want inflation so they can spend to buy votes, reward their friends, and punish their enemies.

More substantially, Brinker objected to giving Congress the power to value money. He feared runaway inflation as the the COngress, as did the French Kings, inflate uncontrollably. That we agree on. Congress is like drunken sailors. Except their ship is always in.

Returning to the Gold Standard, where a dollar is defined as some amount of gold and / or silver, will impose discipline on the world.

How do we get there?

Let people be free to use whatever they want for money. The King, the government, the criminals in DC should just repeal the mandatory tender laws that force everyone to accept the dollar. The marketplace will quickly adjust.

And, Americans can get back to work.

# # # # #