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The Average American Has Been Getting Screwed For Decades (CHARTS)
Everyone works hard not to get cheated out of their fair share. In the past 30 years, due to gains in technology, productivity rose but salaries when adjusted for inflation decreased for the middle class. The extra wealth accumulated at the top 1%. They then use that wealth to influence politicians and get bailouts and all sorts of other favors. When wealth that is concentrated in the hands of a few is one of the main influences in politics then society is no longer a democracy it is a plutocracy. That is what the protest is about. We all work hard and we all want to be treated fairly and we want the rule of law to be restored such that it applies to everyone in society and that the wealthy are not exempt from their actions. Corporations are needed; unethical behavior and corruption aren't needed.Everyone works hard not to get cheated out of their fair share. In the past 30 years,... more-
- dryeraser
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- 7 months ago
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POWERFUL! This Is Exactly Why Wall Street Is To Blame (VIDEO)
This POWERFUL CLIP is EXACTLY why we SUPPORT OCCUPY WALL STREET. Featuring some strong words from Elizabeth Warren about why Wall Street is to blame.This POWERFUL CLIP is EXACTLY why we SUPPORT OCCUPY WALL STREET. Featuring some strong... more-
- dryeraser
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- 7 months ago
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Satire on How The Fed wormed their way into our wallets
Begins at 1:40 into the clip. Excerpt from "the new board game" explaining our economy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCCzXW1W5fQBegins at 1:40 into the clip. Excerpt from "the new board game" explaining... more-
- SteveSaylor
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- 11 months ago
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Breaking: Anonymous Vs. The Federal Reserve (OpESR June 14th Video Announcement)
In this new video release, “as a first step,” Anonymous has called for public protests beginning on June 14th, continuing “until Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke steps down.” To make their case, they have presented a list of recent scandalous Federal Reserve actions.
"To me it is of little surprise to hear the wrong doings of the Fed, what do you folks think???"In this new video release, “as a first step,” Anonymous has called for... more-
- KB723
- added this
- 12 months ago
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- 109 comments
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Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?
America has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sectorAmerica has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is... more-
- joeeddy
- added this
- 1 year ago
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"Money As Debt" - A Voluntaryist's Review
Mike Shanklin reviews the movie "Money As Debt", in order to differentiate between a minarchist perspecitve, and a voluntaryist's perspective.
http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=3925Mike Shanklin reviews the movie "Money As Debt", in order to differentiate... more-
- Polochick09
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- 1 year ago
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- 1 comment
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Republicans Move to Block Ron Paul from Monetary Policy Subcommittee Chair
Ron Paul will not head up the House’s monetary policy subcommittee if John Boehner has anything to say about it.
“Five GOP leadership aides, speaking anonymously because a decision isn’t final, say incoming House Speaker John Boehner has discussed ways to prevent Paul from becoming chairman or to keep him on a tight leash if he does,” reports Bloomberg. “If Boehner, who will help determine who gets to chair subcommittees as early as Dec. 8, rejects Paul, he may have to contend with thousands of grassroots supporters and dozens of younger lawmakers who see Paul as a hero.”
Boehner and the establishment Republicans rode to victory last month on the shoulders of the Tea Party movement. Prior to the election, Tea Party activists in Maine, Colorado, and Utah focused on abolishing the Federal Reserve.
Some predicted that if Republicans were to sweep the House they would become much more confrontational with the Federal Reserve. “The popularity of Tea Party candidates in U.S. elections could spell renewed efforts to curtail the power and independence of the Federal Reserve, which has been cast as an emblem of big government overreach,” Reuters reported in late October.
Many establishment Republicans agree with senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who insists the Tea Party and its vision of less government has no long-term vision or prospects for political viability.
Instead of dismantling the Federal Reserve, establishment Republicans have called for reforming the private bankster cartel masquerading as a government agency supposedly answerable to the American people.
On Tuesday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. called for Congress to change the Fed’s “dual mandate” now requiring it to promote both price stability and full employment and instead focus on keeping inflation low and not worrying about reducing unemployment.
“It is time that we work to clarify the mandate of the Federal Reserve,” said Corker, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, in a statement announcing his support for the change. “Providing our central bank with a clear and explicit focus on keeping inflation low will serve America better than the broader mandate approach we have today,” the National Journal reports.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/republicans-move-to-block-ron-paul-from-monetary-policy-subcommittee-chair.html
Corker and Pence proffered their milquetoast bill after it was revealed the Fed gave a big chunk of its multi-trillion dollar Wall Street bailout to foreign banksters and transnational corporations.
“We now know that the Fed loaned trillions of dollars at zero or near-zero interest rates not only to the largest financial institutions in the country, but also to many of our largest corporations — including GE, McDonalds and Verizon,” said an outraged Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont.
“Perhaps most surprising is the huge sum that went to bail out foreign private banks and corporations, including two European megabanks — Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse,” he said. “As a result of this disclosure, other members of Congress and I will be taking a very extensive look at all aspects of how the Federal Reserve functions.”
Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul may take a serious look at the Fed. But we shouldn’t expect the rest of Congress to support an effort to cut out the cancer that plagues the economy.
In July, Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act that would have eliminated restrictions on GAO audits of the Fed and open its operations to congressional oversight was defeated.
“Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight, while Congress has kept its hands off and its eyes closed,” Ron Paul wrote after language from his bill failed to make it into a conference report on the so-called financial reform bill (that ultimately gave the Fed more power, not less). “The Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar. Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would achieve much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve System.”
Now that Republicans are in charge of the House, they join the Democrats and make sure the Federal Reserve continues to operate in the shadows and remains unanswerable to the American people. The globalist financial train wreck will continue until it accomplishes its goal of pauperizing the American people and preparing the country to be merged into their world government scheme.
“The current Globalist Financial Crisis is a Financial False Flag operation,” writes Alfred Lambremont Webre. “It is a controlled collapse of the globalist economic system, engineered by an international war crimes racketeering organization…. The Financial False Flag [is] designed to accelerate the deterioration of First World economies, democracies, and prosperity, in aid of a larger program of global depopulation. The same powers who control the Federal Reserve Bank are intent on depopulating between 1/3 and 2/3 of the current human population, in service to a grotesque covert elite plan.”
Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, and a handful of other House and Senate renegades who are not reading from the bankster script like John Boehner and the establishment Republicans will not be allowed to hold the Federal Reserve to account.
It will take the collective outrage of grassroots supporters of Paul’s End the Fed movement to force Congress to reconsider moving against the banksters and their cartel.Ron Paul will not head up the House’s monetary policy subcommittee if John... more-
- im1mjrpain
- added this
- 1 year ago
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- 3 comments
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Hayek vs. Keynes Part II - (2 Years Later)
On October 25th, an audience of financial managers and CEOs, politicians, central bankers and nobel prize winning economists at The Economist Magazine's Buttonwood Gathering were treated to an unusual experience: a live rap battle between John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek.
Following a presentation by Nassim Taleb, the lights went down in the auditorium and Fear the Boom and Bust blasted onto the screen. This video picks up at the end of that special presentation, where Keynes and Hayek stepped onto the stage to give a preview of the next EconStories music video.
In the final new video, which will be completed in the months ahead, expect many more lyrics and an all new beat.
Lastly, Russ Roberts and John Papola took the stage with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist for a brief Q&A about the origins of FTBB and the resurgence of Hayek in the global debate over the economy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k7ob438hk0On October 25th, an audience of financial managers and CEOs, politicians, central... more-
- shanklinmike
- added this
- 1 year ago
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- 29 comments
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New $600B Fed Stimulus Fuels Fears of US Currency War
The Federal Reserve will pump $600 billion more into the US economy and keep interest rates at historical low levels. The short-term impact of the Fed’s move, known as quantitative easing, has been a jump in stock prices across the globe. Many nations, however, have accused the United States of waging a currency war by devaluing the dollar. We speak to former Wall Street economist and University of Missouri professor Michael Hudson. "The object of warfare is to take over a country’s land, raw materials and assets, and grab them," Hudson says. "In the past, that used to be done militarily by invading them. But today you can do it financially simply by creating credit, which is what the Federal Reserve has done." [includes rush transcript]
JUAN GONZALEZ: President Obama is leaving today for a ten-day visit to Asia, with scheduled stops in India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, Obama will attend the G20 meeting, where US monetary policy is expected to be high on the agenda.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said it will pump $600 billion more into the US economy and keep interest rates at historically low levels. The short-term impact of the Fed’s move, known as quantitative easing, has been a jump in stock prices across the globe, but many nations have accused the US of waging a currency war by devaluing the dollar. Brazil’s president-elect Dilma Rousseff said, quote, "The last time there was a series of competitive devaluations, it ended in World War II."
China has accused the US of uncontrolled money printing. By devaluing the dollar, the Fed is cheapening the price of US exports and making foreign imports more expensive. In addition, the low interest rates are encouraging US corporations to make massive investments overseas, cheaply buying up foreign real estate, natural resources and stock.
AMY GOODMAN: Our next guest, Michael Hudson, says finance has become a new form of warfare. Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City. A former Wall Street economist, he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire.
Michael Hudson, welcome to Democracy Now!
MICHAEL HUDSON: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Why warfare?
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, the object of warfare is to take over a country’s land, raw materials and assets, and grab them. And in the past, that used to be done militarily by invading them. But today you can do it financially simply by creating credit, which is what the Federal Reserve has done. It’s created $600 billion. It hasn’t gone into the economy. The head of the Fed is known as "Helicopter Ben" because he talks about dropping money into the economy. But if you see helicopters, they’re probably not your friends. Don’t go out and wait for them to drop the money, because the money is all going electronically into the banks. And the Fed has said, we want to give the banks so much money that they will lend it out so you can begin to bid up prices on real estate again and pull the banks out of the real estate negative equity that it’s in. So the purpose, according to the Fed, is to raise the price of real estate, to inflate asset prices. But that’s not happening. The actual banks have lent less today than they did in 2007. So the money is going abroad. And it’s going abroad not really to buy foreign companies so much, but to speculate in currency.
Now, the Fed and the Congress, two weeks ago, said, "We want China to raise its currency by 20 percent." This would create billions and billions of dollars of bonanza for Wall Street banks, and it would enable them to earn their way out of debt by essentially looting the China central bank, the Brazilian central bank, the Turkish central bank and the other central banks, because you can now borrow money in America at one percent. So you’d put down, let’s say, a billion dollars of your own—a million dollars of your own money, borrow $99 million of the bank’s money—that’s $100 million. You would buy Chinese currency, RMB, for $100 million. You then say, "Raise your currency by 20 percent," which is what the Fed has asked them to do. That means that your million dollars now has turned into a $20 million gain, because $100 million is now worth $120 million. You’ve made a 200 percent profit. And for Wall Street, they deal in billions, not millions. And so, this would enable the banks to make up their money by buying out, essentially, foreign currency. They’re doing the same in Australia. It’s currency gamble.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, and meanwhile, the impact, because obviously this decision was made the day after the elections at the Fed meeting, they saw what the political landscape was. There wasn’t going to be any kind of stimulus coming from Congress, so they had to come up with a stimulus for Wall Street the day after the elections. But the impact on the American people of maintaining these historically low interest rates—you know, as we were talking earlier before the show, if you have a little bit of money in a savings account right now, you’re getting virtually no interest. So you’re, in essence, being pressured to end up going into the stock market to be able to get any kind of return on your money—those who still have savings. The same thing with the pension funds. What’s happening to the American people as a result of this same kind of policy?
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, if they have money to put in pension funds or savings, they’re only able to get about one percent, if they keep it safe. Otherwise, they’re taking a risk in the stock market. But the key is not simply lowering interest rates. The idea is to flood the economy with credit so the banks will lend out more debt. And if the Fed’s policy works, then housing prices are going to go back up so high that most consumers are going to have to pay 40 percent of their income for housing. They’re going to have to pay more money for credit card debt. The purpose is to help the banks make money at the expense of the economy. It’s not to help the economy at all. That’s the really important thing. When they say the economy, they mean—the Fed means its constituency: the banks. And the banks’ product is debt. And that’s what they’re trying to produce.
AMY GOODMAN: Is this inflationary?
MICHAEL HUDSON: It will inflate asset prices. It won’t inflate consumer prices. It’s actually deflationary for consumer prices, because if you’re an American consumer and you spend 40 percent of your income for housing, 15 percent for debt service to the bank, 11 percent goes out in your FICA wage withholding, and about ten to 15 percent in actual income taxes, that means that the average American has maybe one-third or a quarter of their salary to actually spend on goods and services. So they have to spend so much on debt service and finance and insurance and real estate that there’s no money to buy goods and services, so that’s why so many stores are closing throughout the cities on the big shopping streets. It’s deflationary for the economy, inflationary for the people who have wealth, inflationary for the banks. And it’s the banks really at the expense of the economy.
More transcript and video at the link....
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/5/new_600b_fed_stimulus_fuels_fearsThe Federal Reserve will pump $600 billion more into the US economy and keep interest... more-
- treewolf39
- added this
- 1 year ago
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9 Reasons Why Quantitative Easing Is Bad For The U.S. Economy
#1 Quantitative Easing Will Damage The Value Of The U.S. Dollar
Each time you add a new dollar to the system, it decreases the value of each existing dollar by just a little bit. Now the Federal Reserve is pumping 900 billion dollars into the system and that is going to have a significant impact. Bill Gross, the manager of the largest mutual fund in the entire world, said on Monday that he believes that more quantitative easing could result in a decline of the U.S. dollar of up to 20 percent….
“I think a 20 percent decline in the dollar is possible.”
#2 Inflation Is Going To Hit Already Struggling U.S. Consumers Really Hard
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Already, investors have been fleeing from the U.S. dollar and other paper currencies and have been flocking to commodities, precious metals and oil. That means that the price of food is going to go up. The price of gasoline is also going to go up. American families are going to find their budgets stretched even more in the months ahead.
#3 Once An Inflationary Spiral Gets Going It Is Really Hard To Stop
The Federal Reserve is playing a very dangerous game by flirting with inflation. Once an inflationary spiral gets going, it is really difficult to stop. Just ask anyone who lived through the Weimar Republic or anyone who lives in Zimbabwe today. If the Federal Reserve is now going to be dumping hundreds of billions of fresh dollars into the system whenever the economy gets into trouble it is inevitable that we will see rampant inflation at some point.
#4 Inflation Is A Hidden Tax On Every American
Tens of millions of Americans have worked incredibly hard to save up a little bit of money. These Americans are counting on that money to pay for a home, or to pay for retirement or to pay for the education of their children. Well, inflation is like a hidden tax on all of those savings. In fact, inflation is a hidden tax on every single dollar that all of us own. We have been taxed more than enough – we certainly don’t need the Federal Reserve imposing another hidden tax on all of us.
#5 The Solution To The Housing Bubble Is Not Another Housing Bubble
Today, approximately a third of all U.S. real estate is estimated to have negative equity. The Federal Reserve apparently believes that by flooding the system with gigantic sacks of cash banks will start making home loans like crazy again and home prices will rise substantially once again – thus wiping out most of that negative equity.
But the solution to the housing bubble is not another housing bubble. The kinds of crazy home loans that were made back in the middle of the decade should never be made again. Market forces should be allowed to bring the housing market to a new equilibrium where ordinary Americans can actually afford to purchase homes. But that is not how our system works anymore. Today, everything has to be manipulated.
#6 More Quantitative Easing Threatens To Destabilize The Global Financial System
We have already entered a time of increasing global financial instability, and the Federal Reserve is not going to help things by introducing hundreds of billions of new dollars into the game. Over the past two decades, bubble after bubble has caused tremendous economic problems, and now all of this new money could give rise to new bubbles. Already, we see financial institutions and investors pumping up carry trade bubbles, engaging in currency speculation and driving up commodity prices to ridiculous levels.
#7 Quantitative Easing Is An Aggressive Move In A World Already On The Verge Of A Currency War
Quantitative easing will likely help U.S. exporters by causing the value of the U.S. dollar to sink. However, this gain by U.S. exporters will come at the expense of foreigners. It is essentially a “zero sum” game. So all of those exporting countries that are already upset with us will become even more furious as the U.S. dollar declines. Could we witness the first all-out “global currency war” in 2011?
#8 Quantitative Easing Threatens The Status Of The Dollar As The World Reserve Currency
As the Federal Reserve continues to play games with the U.S. dollar, quite a few nations around the globe will start evaluating whether or not they want to continue to trade with the U.S. dollar and use it as a reserve currency.
In fact, a recent article on The Market Oracle website explained how this is already happening….
In September, China supported a Russian proposal to start direct trading using the yuan and the ruble rather than pricing their trade or taking payment in U.S. dollars or other foreign currencies. China then negotiated a similar deal with Brazil. And on the eve of the IMF meetings in Washington on Friday, Premier Wen stopped off in Istanbul to reach agreement with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to use their own currencies in a planned tripling Turkish-Chinese trade to $50 billion over the next five years, effectively excluding the dollar.
#9 It Is Going To Become More Expensive For The U.S. Government To Borrow Money
Right now, the U.S. government has been able to borrow money at ridiculously low interest rates. But as the Federal Reserve keeps buying up hundreds of billions in U.S. Treasuries, the rest of the world is going to start refusing to participate in the ongoing Ponzi scheme.
Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)
Peter Schiff, the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, says that one of the big reasons for more quantitative easing is because the U.S. government is already starting to have difficulty finding enough people to borrow from….
At the end of the day, all this deflation talk is a red herring. The true purpose of QE 2 is to disguise the decreasing ability of the Treasury to finance its debts. As global demand for dollar-denominated debt falls, the Fed is looking for an excuse to pick up the slack. By announcing QE 2, it can monetize government debt without the markets perceiving a funding problem.
But the truth is that foreigners are not stupid. They can see the shell game that is being played. As Bill Gross noted on Monday, U.S. government debt will soon become a lot less attractive to foreign investors….
QEII not only produces more dollars but it also lowers the yield that investors earn on them and makes foreigners, which is the key link to the currencies, it makes foreigners less willing to hold dollars in current form or at current prices.
As foreigners begin to balk at all of this nonsense, the U.S. government will either have to start paying higher interest rates on government debt in order to attract enough investors, or the Federal Reserve will just have to drop all pretense and permanently start buying up most of the debt. Either way, once faith has been lost in U.S. Treasuries the financial world will never, ever be the same.
Most Americans have absolutely no idea how fragile the world financial system is right now. Once the rest of the world loses faith in the U.S. dollar and in U.S. Treasuries this entire thing could completely unravel very quickly.
The Federal Reserve is playing a very dangerous game. They are openly threatening the delicate balance of the world financial system.
Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it is really hard to put it back in again. Cross your fingers and hold on tight, because things are going to get really bumpy ahead.
FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.infowars.com/9-reasons-why-quantitative-easing-is-bad-for-the-u-s-economy/#1 Quantitative Easing Will Damage The Value Of The U.S. Dollar Each time you add a... more-
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- 1 year ago
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The Fed No Longer Cares About Hiding The Fact It Is Killing The Dollar
Analysts, Economists, Even Fed Employees Warn Against Disastrous QE2
A number of prominent figures within the financial world are warning that a second round of quantitative easing, expected to be announced today by the Federal Reserve, will have disastrous consequences for the US dollar and the global economy.
The Fed will release a statement this afternoon, most likely confirming that it is to buy at least $500 billion of long-term securities, in the form of printing money out of thin air.
The justification is to offset deflationary fears and stimulate spending, however, critics have refuted this outlook.
Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital notes:
“At the end of the day, all this deflation talk is a red herring. The true purpose of QE 2 is to disguise the decreasing ability of the Treasury to finance its debts. As global demand for dollar-denominated debt falls, the Fed is looking for an excuse to pick up the slack. By announcing QE 2, it can monetize government debt without the markets perceiving a funding problem.”
“I think that this will quite possibly be the worst mistake by the Fed in a generation,” adds Stephen Stanley of Pierpont Securities.
Bill Gross, the manager of the world’s largest mutual fund, told Reuters on Monday that he fears that the measures will result in a catastrophic decline in the value of the dollar:
“I think a 20 percent decline in the dollar is possible,” Gross said.
“When a central bank prints trillions of dollars of checks, which is not necessarily what (a second round of quantitative easing) will do in terms of the amount, but if it gets into that territory—that is a debasement of the dollar in terms of the supply of dollars on a global basis,” Gross told Reuters in an interview at his PIMCO headquarters.
“QEII not only produces more dollars but it also lowers the yield that investors earn on them and makes foreigners, which is the key link to the currencies, it makes foreigners less willing to hold dollars in current form or at current prices,” Gross added.
The Fed seems unconcerned that the public impression it is creating is that it is clearly acting to debase the US dollar.
“It’s a desperate act,” says Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of the investment firm GMO. Grantham says it’s a clear message from the Fed to the rest of the world: “The U.S. doesn’t care if the dollar weakens.”
James D. Hamilton, a University of California, San Diego economist notes that Bernanke may risk increasing expectations for higher inflation by too much, causing a shake- up in currency and bond markets.
“That perception alone would bring about a series of immediate challenges, such as a rapid flight from the dollar, commodity speculation and possible under-subscription to Treasury auctions,” said Hamilton, a former visiting scholar at the Fed board and the New York and Atlanta district banks.
“The real ugly question is, will this ultimately end up being inflationary?” said Scott Minerd, the Santa Monica, California-based chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners LLC, who helps oversee $76 billion. “In the long run, five to 10 years from now or in the next decade, this is going to be a massive problem.”
The London Telegraph’s International Business Editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, agrees with this outlook, noting that QE2 risks currency wars and the end of dollar hegemony:
“The Fed’s “QE2″ risks accelerating the demise of the dollar-based currency system, perhaps leading to an unstable tripod with the euro and yuan, or a hybrid gold standard, or a multi-metal “bancor” along lines proposed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1940s.” Evans-Pritchard writes, referring to the stated intention to institute a new global currency out of the ashes of the crippled world economy.
The most noted critics of the plan, however, have been Fed members themselves who fear the plan is dangerous, unnecessary “bargain with the devil” that will fuel long-term inflation.
As reported by Bloomberg:
Kansas City’s Thomas Hoenig, who has already dissented six straight times, said Oct. 25 that he opposes more easing and because it’s “a very dangerous gamble” that may accelerate inflation and create asset price bubbles. Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher and the Philadelphia Fed’s Charles Plosser have also spoken out since the FOMC’s last meeting against more action by the central bank.
In addition, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota has questioned whether QE2 will work. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker has also seemed to doubt whether it is necessary.
Instead they say that the markets should be allowed to correct themselves.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-fed-no-longer-cares-about-hiding-the-fact-it-is-killing-the-dollar.htmlAnalysts, Economists, Even Fed Employees Warn Against Disastrous QE2 A number of... more-
- im1mjrpain
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Libertarians challenge 89 TARP-supporting incumbents in Congress
This November, Libertarian Party candidates are challenging 89 incumbent members of Congress who voted for the TARP bailouts in 2008. View the list here.
The list includes 27 Republicans and 62 Democrats.
LP Chair Mark Hinkle commented, "Few acts of Congress have evoked as much fear, ire, disgust, and disapproval from Americans as the 2008 TARP banker bailouts, passed with bipartisan support in Congress, and signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush."
Hinkle continued, "Bailer-in-chief John McCain, who famously suspended his 2008 losing Republican presidential campaign to rush back to Washington DC to vote for TARP, tops our list. He'll face Libertarian Party co-founder David Nolan in November."
[Note and correction: An earlier emailed version of this release incorrectly stated the number of Libertarians at 97.]
According to Congressional Quarterly, twelve of these TARP incumbents are in close re-election battles (classified in the "tossup" or "leans" category). The Libertarian Party hopes to help kick them out of office. "They tried to justify TARP by claiming our economy was going off a cliff. Let's push their teetering careers off a cliff," said LP Executive Director Wes Benedict.
The twelve most vulnerable TARP incumbents in races with Libertarians:
Harry Mitchell (D-AZ, District 5)
Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ, District 8)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA, Senator)
Dan Lungren (R-CA, District 3)
Kendrick Meek (D-FL, incumbent Rep. running for Senate)
Bill Foster (D-IL, District 14)
Brad Ellsworth (D-IN, incumbent Rep. running for Senate)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN, District 2)
Roy Blunt (R-MO, incumbent Rep. running for Senate)
Ike Skelton (D-MO, District 4)
Joe Sestak (D-PA, incumbent Rep. running for Senate)
Chet Edwards (D-TX, District 17)
CQ Senate ratings
CQ House ratings
Benedict continued, "The Tea Party revolt is one potentially positive reaction to TARP. But any Tea Partier who votes for a TARP-supporting Republican is a plain old hypocrite, just as bad as the incumbent he or she is pushing back into office. Every Tea Partier should take a pledge to vote against ALL incumbents who voted for TARP, period.
"Liberals should also vote against TARP incumbents. Hundreds of billions for Wall Street bankers and their stockholders and bondholders is not what Democrats are supposed to stand for. Any liberal-leaning voter who votes for a TARP-supporting Democrat, when a Libertarian alternative is available, sends a callous message to the middle class and poor: Thanks for your taxes! Get another job if you can find one -- we want even more of your money to pass up to the Wall Street fat cats!
"Fortunately, these voters have a better option: Libertarian candidates who would have proudly voted against TARP, and who will consistently vote against other foolish, unconstitutional, taxpayer-abusing measures.
"After the TARP bailouts passed, Republicans repeatedly tried to defend their support, sometimes saying that they hadn't done a good enough job explaining it to the American people. Now the recent pandering Republican 'Pledge to America' says 'End TARP once and for all.' Which is it, Republicans? Was it a bad sales pitch, or are you trying to pretend that you never supported it? I suspect that the Republicans don't know what to think. That's a problem with many ignorant and spineless members of Congress today.
"Some incumbents have tried to make the excuse that they voted for TARP because President Bush and Secretary Paulson scared them, or because drops in the stock market made them worry. Such worthless excuses are beneath the dignity of their office. Voters should not let TARP-supporters make excuses for themselves.
"Last year, William A. Niskanen of the Cato Institute wrote this article describing five instances in which the members of Congress caved in to executive-branch hysteria, leading to disastrous consequences. (TARP is #4 chronologically.) Each time, the members of Congress failed to uphold their crucial responsibility to view all executive requests with care and skepticism.
"If all it takes is for a president to shout 'The sky is falling!' to get Congress to pass whatever he wants, then we might as well make the president a king, and give him all the power.
"In addition to the huge transfer of wealth from taxpayers to bankers, TARP created tremendous moral hazard by sending this loud message to bankers: 'Your goal is to get big, because then you can claim you're too big to fail, and you can get Congressmen to force taxpayers to bail you out for whatever stupid or self-serving decisions you make.'
"It's hard to think of another government program that did more to reward stupidity and punish prudence.
"TARP is both a short-term and long-term failure. We would be better off today if Congress had done nothing."
http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarians-challenge-97-tarp-supporting-incumbents-in-congressThis November, Libertarian Party candidates are challenging 89 incumbent members of... more-
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Is America Really Free, If A Privately-Owned Central Bank Controls Our Currency And Runs Our Economy?
I hope everyone had a happy and safe Fourth of July. Now, it's time to start asking the tough questions.
http://www.businessinsider.com/is-america-really-free-if-a-privately-owned-central-bank-controls-our-currency-and-runs-our-economy-2010-7I hope everyone had a happy and safe Fourth of July. Now, it's time to start... more-
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Ron Paul 6/9/2010 Restore A Full Audit Of The Federal Reserve
6/9/2010 Ron Paul speaks on the House floor about Restoring a FULL audit of the Federal Reserve.
http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=35626/9/2010 Ron Paul speaks on the House floor about Restoring a FULL audit of the... more-
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Weekly Audit: Deficit Reduction = Selling Out to Wall Street
http://www.themediaconsortium.org/2010/06/08/weekly-audit-deficit-reductionselling-out-to-wall-street/
by Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger
In the fall of 2008, decades of finance-first, bankers-know-best economic policies coalesced to create one of the worst economic crises in history, one that the banks themselves could not survive without staggering levels of government support.
Yet astonishingly, nearly two years after the crash, Wall Street is still setting the economic agenda in Washington. As Congress begins to examine broader economic policy, lawmakers are under heavy Wall Street pressure to reduce the federal budget deficit—even though that could mean deepening the jobs crisis without any substantive economic benefits.
Small-bore reforms
At the same time, the financial reform bill that Congress is on the verge of passing leaves quite a bit to be desired. As the editors of The Nation emphasize, that legislation includes several small-bore fixes to ease the damage caused by Wall Street excess, but almost nothing to actually curb the excesses themselves. The capital markets casinos will largely be left untouched. Congress still has time to improve the bill over the next month as the House and Senate iron out their differences, and many useful reforms remain in play.
Nevertheless, Wall Street’s lobbyists have succeeded in taking the most important reforms off the table. We will not break up the biggest banks this year, nor will we tax reckless financial speculation. We aren’t even banning economically essential banks from participating in risky securities businesses.
Et tu, Buffet?
As Annie Lowrey notes for The Washington Independent, the crisis has even discredited Warren Buffett, one the few financial superstars who previously had a reputation as a “straight-shooter” that invested in responsible enterprises.
Buffett was once a harsh critic of credit rating agencies, the firms who slapped top ratings on toxic mortgage-backed securities and derivatives. But Buffett himself is also a top shareholder in Moody’s, one of the worst ratings agencies. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission had to compel Buffett’s testimony at a recent hearing via subpoena after Buffett turned down multiple requests to appear. At the hearing itself, Buffett did everything he could to pass the buck from himself and Moody’s to any other possible target.
Slashing the deficit
Wall Street’s ugly influence on economic policy extends far beyond the realm of bank regulation itself. Right now, financial elites are pushing hard on a right-wing plan to slash the federal budget deficit, and even many moderate Democrats are coming out in support of reduced government spending.
This strategy is a tremendous political blunder, as Steve Benen emphasizes for The Washington Monthly. It’s true that the deficit does not poll very well—but the deficit is only one side of the issue. Cutting the deficit means slashing federal support for jobs—we can help the economy or we can slash the deficit, but we cannot do both at the same time.
Nearly everyone believes that creating jobs should be a top priority for the government, but if politicians only ask questions about the deficit, they won’t hear answers about the economy. The political imperative is clear, as Benen notes:
This really shouldn’t be complicated: invest in more job creation, help struggling states as they keep laying off workers, and make clear to voters that the economy is more important than the deficit. Do this immediately, without apology.
Replacing Social Security with credit cards?
Wall Street loves cutting social services in the name of deficit reduction. Every public good that can be efficiently provided for by the government can also be inefficiently provided by the private sector—replacing public benefits with corporate profits. The bank lobby would like nothing more than to replace Social Security with credit cards for senior citizens. Wall Street doesn’t make a dime on the government’s Social Security payments—but they can make a killing on a privatized market.
Weak job growth=Weak private sector
Lest there be any question about whether or not the government needs to take strong action to strengthen the labor market, take a look at Friday’s jobs report. As Tim Fernholz notes for The American Prospect, this report was the most disappointing piece of economic news in months. While the economy gained 431,000 new jobs during the month, 411,000 of them were temporary hires by the U.S. Census, meaning the private sector is not able to support much new hiring.
There’s a critical lesson there: The only serious engine of job growth in the month of May was the federal government. Absent government hiring, the economy is not improving at all. There is an almost bottomless supply of critical social needs that require work right now, but no private-sector momentum to meet those needs.
The BP oil catastrophe should underscore how important new, green energy is to the U.S. economy—yet U.S. efforts to develop green energy solutions have fallen far behind those of China and other industrial powerhouse nations. Major federal investment into the research and implementation of green energy would be good for our environment and good for our economy.
Don’t let social services suffer
But astoundingly, the advice on the world economy currently coming from top policymakers at the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund and European central banks is echoing the bank lobby line: Slash social programs now, and let the job market fend for itself. As Dean Baker emphasizes for AlterNet, these are the exact same policymakers who missed the housing bubble, made the wrong calls on bank regulation and sent the global economy into freefall.
There has been little change in personnel and no acknowledgment of error at the central banks whose incompetence was responsible for the crisis . . . . their agenda seems to be the same everywhere, cut back retirement benefits, reduce public support for health care, weaken unions and make ordinary workers take pay cuts.
In short, Wall Street and the Wall Street policy agenda remain ascendant, despite economic catastrophe. In the Great Depression, the government actually learned its lesson—we regulated the banks, created Social Security and put millions to work through government hiring programs. That same basic agenda is needed today. Failing to meet it could well mean decades of economic decline.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Audit for a complete list of articles on economic issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Mulch, The Pulse and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.http://www.themediaconsortium.org/2010/06/08/weekly-audit-deficit-reductionselling-out-... more-
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Ron Paul 5/10/2010 On Greece Bailout & Paper (Fiat) Currency
5/10/2010 Ron Paul on the global financial bailout of Greece and the American taxpayer.-
- shanklinmike
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- 2 years ago
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Dr Tom Woods Speaks At Campbell University 3/30/2010
3/30/2010 Dr Tom Woods speaks at Campbell University’s Adam Smith Club Banquet in Buies Creek, NC to discuss the economy, the Federal Reserve, monetary policy, fiat currency, inflation, and much, much more.3/30/2010 Dr Tom Woods speaks at Campbell University’s Adam Smith Club Banquet... more-
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Weekly Audit: Will Weak Reforms Bring on Another Crisis?
By Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) unveiled his latest financial reform proposal on Monday, and the stakes for the new legislation couldn’t be higher. After consumer groups raised a major ruckus, Dodd has dropped one of his most egregious concessions to the bank lobby—cutting enforcement authority from the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). That’s good news: Without a major regulatory overhaul, the U.S. economy’s destructive boom and bust cycle will start all over again.
We’ve been down this road before. The Enron fiasco should have served as a wake-up call for policymakers, but instead, the weak federal response to Enron’s major fraud helped pave the way for the current economic slump.
What does Enron have to do with the crisis?
As Megan Carpentier emphasizes for The Washington Independent, one of the key “reforms” Congress enacted in the Enron aftermath was a law requiring every CEO to sign-off on their company’s accounting statements—but it has accomplished almost nothing.
Enron collapsed due to accounting fraud. Its executives weren’t stupid or careless—they made their money by engaging in deliberate and coordinated acts of illegal deception. But CEOs of companies like Enron had always been able to deny that they knew about the shenanigans that were playing out in their accounting departments. By forcing CEOs to sign off on their accounting statements, Congress was attempting to “deny them plausible deniability,” as Carpentier puts it.
But accounting fraud has plagued the U.S. economy, even after the Enron scandal. It also plays a major role in the Wall Street crisis. A recent court report from Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy examiner reveals that the company arranged a series of complicated transactions to hide $50 billion in debt, making Lehman appear healthier than it was. By hiding this debt, Lehman was able to make bigger bets on the mortgage market. The defense issued by Lehman CEO Richard Fuld? He apparently didn’t know the accounting hijinks were happening
An epidemic of fraud
Most U.S. policymakers are still having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that our financial system is rife with fraud at almost every level. Writing for AlterNet, Joe Costello reports on a recent Roosevelt Institute conference featuring several major economic luminaries. Costello argues that some of Wall Street’s biggest problems were driven by run-of-the-mill fraud. And a key vehicle for this fraud, Costello notes, was the derivatives market—the same market that allowed Enron to perpetrate its own frauds. Many of the scams aren’t even particularly new or creative. They’re simply the same cons that helped usher in the Great Depression.
“If we’re going to get our economy up and running again, the first thing we’re going to have to do is end the fraud,” Costello writes.
Protecting Whistleblowers
But astonishingly, even after the worst financial crisis in history, bigwig bankers have been able to avoid fraud charges and investigations. Even when the Justice Department went after Swiss banking Giant UBS for a massive tax evasion scheme, they let the company’s U.S. executives off the hook and instead jailed the very whistleblower who told the government about the fraud.
The whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld, is by no means innocent of wrongdoing—he even smuggled diamonds in a toothpaste container for a wealthy UBS client. But as Corbin Hiarr notes for Mother Jones, jailing the man who blows the whistle sends exactly the wrong message to anybody in Big Finance who recognizes a problem. Not only will your employer come at you with everything it has, but the government you aid will actually send you to prison. The fraudsters you finger get to retire to the Caymans.
This is part of the reason that successful financial reform is not just what the rules are, but who gets to enforce them. There were many reasonable rules against predatory lending that bank regulators at the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) could have used to thwart the financial crisis early on, but neither agency was interested in doing so. They were more concerned with short-term banking profits, and up until 2007, sketchy accounting was allowing banks to book big gains on the subprime market.
Why we need a CFPA
That’s why all the way back in June of 2009, President Barack Obama proposed establishing a CFPA focused exclusively on defending consumers against banks. With no concerns for bank profitability, CFPA regulators could go after unfair practices and fraud because they were wrong, regardless of what they did for bank balance sheets.
The proposal was watered down significantly in the House, as Kai Wright notes for The Nation, and just a week ago it appeared that Dodd was ready to completely torpedo the new regulator in an effort to craft bipartisan support for a so-called “reform” bill.
He’s backed off since then, but without strong enforcement authority, nothing is gained—the same corrupt regulators will simply continue to look the other way. But Dodd would still house the new agency at the Federal Reserve. Dodd insists the Fed would have no authority over the CPFA, but if that were the case, why would he introduce the provision at all?
“Reform in name alone will be useless to both consumers and politicians,” writes Wright.
Strong financial reform is overwhelmingly popular. While it’s good to see Dodd backing away from some of the gifts he’d previously proposed to bank lobbyists, progressives must keep the pressure high to ensure that financial reform is strengthened as it moves through the Senate.
It’s easy for a corrupt lawmaker to vote against a weak bill: He can always plead that the bill wasn’t good enough and be right. But serious, popular reform is not so easy to oppose. If Dodd and the Democratic leadership make the politicians backed by the bank lobby—that’s literally every Republican, plus a handful of conservative Democrats—stand up and vote against a good bill, many of them will have to choose between their lobbyist friends and their political future.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Audit for a complete list of articles on economic issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Mulch, The Pulse and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris... more-
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US Senate Candidate Dr Mike Beitler On PFP Radio Discussing The Fed, Foreign Policy, Economy
2/12/2010 Libertarian US Senate Candidate from North Carolina, Dr Mike Beitler appeared as a guest on PFP Movement Radio to discuss his NC Senate campaign and libertarian ideals as a whole. The topics range from personal freedoms, to economy, to civil liberties, to foreign policy, and much, much more.2/12/2010 Libertarian US Senate Candidate from North Carolina, Dr Mike Beitler... more-
- shanklinmike
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- 2 years ago
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Hightower: Bernanke Wants Even More God-Like Powers for the Federal Reserve
Editor's Note: It's now come out that Ben Bernanke's future at the helm of the Federal Reserve is in question. "Bernanke's confirmation vote by the Senate for a second four-year term has been delayed, pending receipt by the committee of documents concerning the Fed's role in the massive bailouts of the U.S. financial industry in 2008 during the economic meltdown." The Huffington Post reported that on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Bernanke opponent, said that opposition was growing against his re-confirmation. And on Thursday Jim Manley, senior communications adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said that the vote had not been firmly locked in and won't take place this week. A spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve referred questions to the Senate."
***
Here's a story that reads like the script of an old B-grade monster movie -- and it would be comic, were it not so serious. The monster is named "The Fed," a hydra-headed creature with enormous and destructive power, which it exercises from within the misty confines of a marble cavern that is unapproachable by commoners.
In real life, the Fed is the Federal Reserve -- a private, for-profit bank that is run by and mostly for other big bankers. But it's also its own, secretive branch of our national government. The Fed creates its own money (check your bills -- they're called Federal Reserve notes), it sets our interest rates, it regulates Wall Street and (as we've recently learned the hard way) it has sweeping power to bail out Wall Street.
The Fed operates largely beyond the purview of Congress or even the White House, and both the media and the public are essentially shut out from scrutinizing its financial machinations. The banking gods who dwell within the Fed's temple are said to have knowledge, even wisdom, that the rest of us cannot fathom, so the Powers That Be tell us that these deities must be left alone to make their decisions and work their wonders.
But, wait -- aren't these the same omniscient gods, including Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, that failed to see -- much less forestall -- the looming financial disaster created by Wall Street gamblers who used people's homes as their personal gambling chips during the past decade? Yes, indeed, those are the gods -- the very ones who were supposed to be monitoring and regulating the gamblers to keep them from crashing our financial system and wrecking America's real economy.
Where were these all-knowing ones when we needed them? The blissful Bernanke, who heads the Fed, now claims that the crash of '08 happened because he and other gods did not have enough regulatory clout to stop it.
"Give us more power," is Bernanke's current demand to Congress!
But, wait -- as New York Times analyst David Leonhardt recently wrote -- Fed officials failed to use the substantial power they already had. Why? Because they're too cozy with the quick-fingered Wall Street gamblers they "regulate," so they simply refused to see (or believe) clear signs that the whole system would topple as housing prices headed over the cliff.
While Bernanke is a very smart guy, he was soaked in the stupid conventional wisdom of the day, which was that housing prices only go up. In 2005, he dismissed non-conformist critics of the Fed's inaction by flatly declaring, "We've never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis." And, two years later, as prices were plummeting and modest-income families were defaulting on their home payments, he calmly assured us that the gods "do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy."
Our financial rulers were so intoxicated with the fumes of their own omnipotence that they failed abjectly as regulators, as public servants and, most certainly, as gods.
More at link above:Editor's Note: It's now come out that Ben Bernanke's future at the helm... more-
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