Money, money, money
Many of you already know that a good portion of my cynicism of the government and the current economic system has come from my basic 101 Economics and History classes. Scratch that. They weren’t 101 classes. They were classes…
…in high school.
One of my biggest criticisms of the status quo is the Federal Reserve. I could give a long, detailed blog about why I hate the Federal Reserve so much, but I’m going to keep it simple today because I’m sure none of you want to read it. And for those of you reading this that know my number, why read a rant when you can just pick up the phone and listen one?
Here’s my hatred for the Federal Reserve in a nutshell.
Control.
The Federal Reserve is, and I’m quoting my economics text book here:
“The US central bank, consisting of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the 12 Federal Reserve banks, which controls the lending activity of the nation’s banks and thrifts and thus the money supply; commonly referred to as the “Fed.”
Sounds like a good idea-I’m calling it the Fed for the rest of this blog.
The Fed essentially is the banker’s bank. Each bank in the United States belongs to one of twelve zones. Each zone has one Federal Reserve Bank. The Board of Governors is in charge of the twelve zones and Federal Open Market Committee. Maybe at a later time, when I understand it more, I’ll go further into depth with FOMC, but let’s see if you can figure out the major problem with this Fed’s chain of command. Let’s look at a chart…
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Do you see what the problem here is too?
Let’s make another chart to make sure you got it…
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Consider this: the Fed is the organization responsible for creating our money, and by extension, the value of it.
Consider this: When the Fed adjusts interest rates too early or too late after a recession, they fuck it up big time for all of us.
Consider this: How many Board of Directors did you vote for? In most corporations, you get at least a hypothetical voice in the choosing of the board of directors.
The Fed is a private bank entity that has no ties to the public outside the power they exercise freely over the money supply. They answer to no one. They adhere to no rules. Too much power concentrated into one source is bad news for everyone involved.
I think one of the funniest things I heard from my Econ 101 class in college came from my professor. I had asked him something along the lines of this:
Since the Fed is responsible for so much money, and by extension, every single life of America’s population, shouldn’t they be subjected to at least an audit every couple of years? Shouldn’t there be some sort of investigation, especially when things go tango uniform in the Economy, so we can determine if these guys are actually doing their job? Wouldn’t it give tax payers a bit of relief to know exactly what their tax dollars went to?
You know, on second thought, it would have been much better if I’d said that instead of the crap I’m sure I spilled. Just imagine this as the background theme of the question and throw in a couple f-bombs and that’s probably what I actually said.
His response? Oh ho, my econ professor’s response was rich:
All the Board of Directors have Ph D’s and are Nobel Prize holders. They’re the good guys. They don’t have anything to hide. They know what they’re doing.
I can think of three really good reasons why this may be the most idiotic response to that sort of question: myself, the former CEO of General Motors and Stephanie Meyer.
Myself- I hold a high school degree. This means I have working knowledge of the world around me. I can add. I can tell you what year Columbus discovered America (1492 thankyouverymuch!). It means I am competent to do work that requires these basic measures. My job, waitressing, doesn’t even require holding a GED or high school diploma and I’m still a terrible waitress! I spill things on people. I swipe the wrong credit cards for the wrong orders. I freak out when I have too many tables waiting for their food. I forget to punch orders into the kitchen! I’m that waitress who stands at the table until it gets too physically awkward for me to stay any longer.
Somehow, I don’t think having a higher degree is going to make me less clumsy, less socially awkward and less of a scatterbrained nuisance upon society.
The former CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner-according to his Wikipedia page, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Duke University. He received his MBA from Harvard. He even spent almost fifteen years on GM’s financial board!
With all of those prestigious papers behind his name, he still tanked his company.
Stephanie Meyer-I’m in a Twilight hating mood right now. She has an English degree from BYU and she wrote five God awful abominations for books. Books which make me get on a feminist pedestal and I can’t stand feminism.
The same can be said about the Fed. Just because they have high degrees doesn’t mean they are competent. It doesn’t mean they are able. And it doesn’t mean they will always do their job correctly. And in a job where so much power and responsibility ride on the shoulders of thirteen men (12 board members and a chairman, for all of those playing at home), there needs to be a more thorough vetting system and an audit. At least one.
Even the CIA gets audited and they have some pretty dark, dirty little secrets. And those are secrets that need to be kept secret because people can actually die.
And as a side note, those are dark dirty secrets that I don't want to know about. "Overseas Contingency Operations" is a good enough explanation where that money went to.
So, the question that I’m sure you’re asking yourself is what got me thinking about the Fed and how messed up everything is nowadays. And lucky for you, I'm going to tell you!
After a rather abysmal day at work, I looked through my tip money and happened to come across a bill that looked different than normal. In fact, I thought it was a cheap counterfeit, but upon closer examination, I realized it was a dollar bill from 1957.
That’s a really old bill.
My parents were born in 1958.
It was before the US pulled off the gold standard.
Now, I don’t support returning to the gold standard. The world runs on credit. I understand that. I get that. When it’s used properly, credit is actually a very, very good thing. But, I digress. On the bill, there says across the top: “this certifies that there is on deposit in the treasure of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” Besides that, there was something different about that dollar, and it wasn’t until I compared it to a modern bill that it hit me, and it sank in how much I detest the Fed.
On modern bills, at least twice, it says: “This is Legal Tender of the U.S. Federal Reserve.”
On the old bill, I’ll repeat, “This certifies that there is on demand in the Treasury of the United States of America.”
Before the official formation of the Fed as the money maker and breaker of America, money belonged to the Department of Treasury. Now? Money is owned by a private bank that has never been scrutinized and never held responsible for their actions.
It’s a really scary thing to think about.
…in high school.
One of my biggest criticisms of the status quo is the Federal Reserve. I could give a long, detailed blog about why I hate the Federal Reserve so much, but I’m going to keep it simple today because I’m sure none of you want to read it. And for those of you reading this that know my number, why read a rant when you can just pick up the phone and listen one?
Here’s my hatred for the Federal Reserve in a nutshell.
Control.
The Federal Reserve is, and I’m quoting my economics text book here:
“The US central bank, consisting of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the 12 Federal Reserve banks, which controls the lending activity of the nation’s banks and thrifts and thus the money supply; commonly referred to as the “Fed.”
Sounds like a good idea-I’m calling it the Fed for the rest of this blog.
The Fed essentially is the banker’s bank. Each bank in the United States belongs to one of twelve zones. Each zone has one Federal Reserve Bank. The Board of Governors is in charge of the twelve zones and Federal Open Market Committee. Maybe at a later time, when I understand it more, I’ll go further into depth with FOMC, but let’s see if you can figure out the major problem with this Fed’s chain of command. Let’s look at a chart…
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Do you see what the problem here is too?
Let’s make another chart to make sure you got it…
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Consider this: the Fed is the organization responsible for creating our money, and by extension, the value of it.
Consider this: When the Fed adjusts interest rates too early or too late after a recession, they fuck it up big time for all of us.
Consider this: How many Board of Directors did you vote for? In most corporations, you get at least a hypothetical voice in the choosing of the board of directors.
The Fed is a private bank entity that has no ties to the public outside the power they exercise freely over the money supply. They answer to no one. They adhere to no rules. Too much power concentrated into one source is bad news for everyone involved.
I think one of the funniest things I heard from my Econ 101 class in college came from my professor. I had asked him something along the lines of this:
Since the Fed is responsible for so much money, and by extension, every single life of America’s population, shouldn’t they be subjected to at least an audit every couple of years? Shouldn’t there be some sort of investigation, especially when things go tango uniform in the Economy, so we can determine if these guys are actually doing their job? Wouldn’t it give tax payers a bit of relief to know exactly what their tax dollars went to?
You know, on second thought, it would have been much better if I’d said that instead of the crap I’m sure I spilled. Just imagine this as the background theme of the question and throw in a couple f-bombs and that’s probably what I actually said.
His response? Oh ho, my econ professor’s response was rich:
All the Board of Directors have Ph D’s and are Nobel Prize holders. They’re the good guys. They don’t have anything to hide. They know what they’re doing.
I can think of three really good reasons why this may be the most idiotic response to that sort of question: myself, the former CEO of General Motors and Stephanie Meyer.
Myself- I hold a high school degree. This means I have working knowledge of the world around me. I can add. I can tell you what year Columbus discovered America (1492 thankyouverymuch!). It means I am competent to do work that requires these basic measures. My job, waitressing, doesn’t even require holding a GED or high school diploma and I’m still a terrible waitress! I spill things on people. I swipe the wrong credit cards for the wrong orders. I freak out when I have too many tables waiting for their food. I forget to punch orders into the kitchen! I’m that waitress who stands at the table until it gets too physically awkward for me to stay any longer.
Somehow, I don’t think having a higher degree is going to make me less clumsy, less socially awkward and less of a scatterbrained nuisance upon society.
The former CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner-according to his Wikipedia page, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Duke University. He received his MBA from Harvard. He even spent almost fifteen years on GM’s financial board!
With all of those prestigious papers behind his name, he still tanked his company.
Stephanie Meyer-I’m in a Twilight hating mood right now. She has an English degree from BYU and she wrote five God awful abominations for books. Books which make me get on a feminist pedestal and I can’t stand feminism.
The same can be said about the Fed. Just because they have high degrees doesn’t mean they are competent. It doesn’t mean they are able. And it doesn’t mean they will always do their job correctly. And in a job where so much power and responsibility ride on the shoulders of thirteen men (12 board members and a chairman, for all of those playing at home), there needs to be a more thorough vetting system and an audit. At least one.
Even the CIA gets audited and they have some pretty dark, dirty little secrets. And those are secrets that need to be kept secret because people can actually die.
And as a side note, those are dark dirty secrets that I don't want to know about. "Overseas Contingency Operations" is a good enough explanation where that money went to.
So, the question that I’m sure you’re asking yourself is what got me thinking about the Fed and how messed up everything is nowadays. And lucky for you, I'm going to tell you!
After a rather abysmal day at work, I looked through my tip money and happened to come across a bill that looked different than normal. In fact, I thought it was a cheap counterfeit, but upon closer examination, I realized it was a dollar bill from 1957.
That’s a really old bill.
My parents were born in 1958.
It was before the US pulled off the gold standard.
Now, I don’t support returning to the gold standard. The world runs on credit. I understand that. I get that. When it’s used properly, credit is actually a very, very good thing. But, I digress. On the bill, there says across the top: “this certifies that there is on deposit in the treasure of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” Besides that, there was something different about that dollar, and it wasn’t until I compared it to a modern bill that it hit me, and it sank in how much I detest the Fed.
On modern bills, at least twice, it says: “This is Legal Tender of the U.S. Federal Reserve.”
On the old bill, I’ll repeat, “This certifies that there is on demand in the Treasury of the United States of America.”
Before the official formation of the Fed as the money maker and breaker of America, money belonged to the Department of Treasury. Now? Money is owned by a private bank that has never been scrutinized and never held responsible for their actions.
It’s a really scary thing to think about.