Explaining the Federal Reserve
Many libertarians and others on the far right are concerned about the Federal Reserve and subscribe to the common conspiracy theory that it is a dangerous private monopoly operated by foreign bankers for their profit and to the detriment of the people of the United States. While I acknowledge that there are a lot of reasons to be concerned about Fed policy, the conspiratorial concerns are generally unfounded.
This issue is explored in an excellent article in Liberty Magazine by Bill Woolsey. He lays out in considerable detail exactly how the Federal Reserve works and provides as clear an explanation as I’ve seen of the nature of the institution and the illogic of theories about Fed conspiracies. He makes the very important point that even if there are foreign bankers involved in the operation of the Federal Reserve, the structure of the institution is such that final authority rests with government-appointed board members, not with the members who represent the banks investing in the Fed, so even if foreign banks and bankers are involved, they aren’t in control.
Dave
Paul Craig Roberts is back on the top of the list of dunces for his heroic defense of Iran and repeated claims that the Bush administration was horribly slandering the innocent Iranians who had no intention of developing nuclear weapons. All of which has now been proven to be as foolish and naive as his equally ridiculous beliefs about the 9/11 attacks. The latest reports from the IAEA and IISS show that Iran will have working nuclear weapons in a matter of months and that they never shut down any of their nuclear weapons development programs. Just being so totally wrong would get Roberts the nod as featured idiot, but add in the fact that his idiocy is motivated by his rabid antisemitism and he gets to be top idiot with a gold star.
May 31st, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Check out the RLC national blog as lately a certain poster claims that if you don’t support the fed’s elimination then you are not a libertarian. According to him, you are at best a big government conservative.
May 31st, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Will do. Is he not aware that the Fed isn’t even part of the government? What happened to libertarians who were in favor of privatization?
Dave
September 20th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
doesnt matter how much explanation he gives. anytime the banks print money out of thin air and loan out up to 20 times the made up value, its called criminal. dont matter what kind of sugar coating you use.