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Ward Williams

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Is the Federal Reserve a false necessity, created to redistribute wealth from bottom to top?

The United States no longer uses the gold standard as backing for it's monetary system. Instead our money is created by fiat, that is, the Federal Reserve simply says it exists. The Federal Reserve, which is not a government entity loans us the money and we pay it back with interest. As a middle man isn't it in the Federal Reserve's interest to loan us as much money as it can? Given the obvious incestuous relationships between money and power in Washington, is it equally beneficial for Washington to concoct reasons for the government to need money?

I don't really have a problem with fiat money since anything will assume whatever value we place on it, but why are we paying a middle man to fabricate it from thin air? Why are we borrowing money from someone else when we could borrow the money from ourselves, much as borrowing from a 401k. We borrow from ourselves and pay ourselves back, with the same interest. That interest would then become income, rather than expense. Given that fiat money is imaginary, isn't then the debt imaginary too?

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    edward long 100+

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    Feb 19 2013: Yes, it is. Read Ed Griffin's book "The Creature From Jekyll Island."
    There is a timely news story today about Germany requesting their gold boullion bars from the Federal Reserve and being told "NO". It will be interesting to see what happens there. Is the gold there? It belongs there in the vault. Why won't the FR pay to bearer on demand? Let's watch!
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      Ward Williams

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      Feb 19 2013: I have a book called "Secrets Of The Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins. It made my skin crawl. This is the kind of thing that inspires conspiracy theories. I'm not an economist, but I know for sure that when things are done in secret there is no chance that any of us can make intelligent decisions (or have intelligent conversations) without accurate information, or using information that may be completely false. Secrecy is the killer of any meaningful conversation. If this system has no ill intent there should be no reason for secrecy. There is only one reason for our employees (The Federal Reserve are not even our employees) to meet in secret. They don't want us to know what's being said.
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        edward long 100+

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        Feb 19 2013: Thanks for the book reference. William Greider has a book called "Secrets of the Temple". It illustrates how the FR runs the country, and you're right, it is done in secret. Mainstream, especially liberal, media ignores the subject entirely except for an occassional "another conspiracy theory" bit. People don't care to know about this sort of thing. Ignorance and apathy reigns.

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