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The Fed Then And Now – Remembering William McChesney Martin, Jr.
Submitted by Erico Tavares of Linares & Co.
The Fed Then and Now – Remembering William McChesney Martin, Jr.
These days, central banks have become so intertwined with the economy and capital markets that every word uttered by just about any senior Federal Reserve official is endlessly scrutinized to gauge what their next step might be.
But it wasn’t always like this. There were times when the Fed actively defended the strict independence of monetary policy, as well as the role of free markets in creating prosperity and even preserving civil liberties. And those were the days of William McChesney Martin, Jr.
An Experienced Central Banker
Born in 1906, Martin was associated with the Fed from the very start. His father, a prominent banker from St. Louis, was part of the team that helped write the Federal Reserve Act and subsequently served as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis from 1929 to 1941.
After graduating from Yale with a B.A. degree in Latin and English, Martin started his professional career at the Fed of his native St. Louis. He then left to become the head of the statistics department at A. G. Edwards & Sons, a local brokerage firm. He was promoted to partner just after two years, marking the beginning of a meteoric rise in the world of finance. He moved to New York to become the firm’s representative at the New York Stock Exchange, and eventually became the first paid President of the latter at the tender age of 31 – prompting the newspapers to label him the "boy wonder of Wall Street”.
Wall Street in the 1930s of course was “no country for old men”. Throughout the decade, Martin had witnessed firsthand the wild gyrations of the stock market, and at one point worked for the SEC to reestablish investor confidence and prevent future crashes. He also pursued graduate studies in economics at Columbia University, but did not get a degree.
In 1941, he was drafted into the US Army, supervising the disposal of raw materials on the Munitions Allocations Board and also liaising with Congress on lend-lease programs with the Soviet Union. Martin was discharged as Colonel at the end of the war, and soon after was nominated by President Harry Truman to lead the Export-Import Bank of the US. He then served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1949 to 1951.
Therefore, by the time he was about to be appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in March 1951, Martin was already an extremely well-rounded finance professional, pursuant to his roles on Wall Street, the US Army, sponsoring the nation’s exports and finally the US Treasury. And he was ready to make his mark.
Preserving the Fed’s Independence
While at the Treasury, Martin was part of the team which negotiated the March 1951 Treasury-Fed Accord, which gave the Fed control over monetary policy and ended its obligation to monetize the government’s debt at a fixed rate.
However, the Truman administration was keen to regain control of the Fed, and after the resignation of the then Chairman Thomas B. McCabe, they saw the perfect opportunity to step in. Once again Truman turned to Martin, a fellow Missourian Democrat, to be the next Chairman, hoping that he would play along with his plans. However, Martin fiercely resisted any attempts of government interference from the get-go. And he kept at it during the nineteen years he served at the Fed – the longest tenure of any Chairman.
In a 1955 speech he said, “Congress entrusted to the Federal Reserve System responsibility for managing the money supply. This was an historic and revolutionary step. In framing the Federal Reserve Act great care was taken to safeguard this money management from improper interference by either private or political interests. That is why we talk about the overriding importance of maintaining our independence.”
Martin had a job to do and he stuck with it. He stood up not only to the pressures from the politicians – the people who actually appointed him, but also from his former colleagues on Wall Street. At the bottom of one economic slump, he warned Congress that you can't “spend yourself prosperous”. He also remarked, “A perpetual deficit is the road to undermining any currency.” In 1965, he famously clashed with President Lyndon Johnson over the discount rate, raising it despite Johnson’s objections.
And it was Martin who coined the now iconic phrase “take away the punchbowl just as the party gets going”, as a metaphor for the Fed’s role in reigning in the animal spirits at the appropriate time.
Economic and Political Views
While staunchly defending the Fed’s independence, Martin also had some strong economic and political views of his own, after working through some very pronounced business cycles and geopolitical events. Those were the heydays of the Cold War, with each side competing for supremacy and the hearts and minds of people all over the world.
The following quotes exemplify his views, and appear to be as relevant today as they were back then:
“That experience [of substantial government intervention in the 1930s and 1940s] led to growing concern over the effect of a straitjacket of controls on the economy's productive capacity, and the price that would be exacted in terms of individual liberty if the harness of wartime economic controls were carried over into the postwar years. Such a straitjacketing of the economy is wholly inconsistent with our political institutions and our private enterprise system. The history of despotic rule, of authoritarian rule, not merely in this century but throughout the ages is acutely repugnant to us. It has taken a frightful toll in human misery and degradation.
“If businessmen, bankers, your contemporaries in the business and financial world, stay on the sidelines, concerned only with making profits, letting the Government bear all of the responsibility and the burden of guidance of the economy, we shall surely fail. I am as weary as you are of pious platitudes and after dinner preachments about leadership and financial statesmanship. But the fact is that the Government isn't something apart and remote from you. It is you – all of us.”
However, despite his strong convictions he was not a purist, acknowledging that extraordinary times might require extraordinary measures. He once said “it is true that in a great emergency we have been willing to make a departure from our market structure, but our mood has been that of the man who has to leave home for the confines of a bomb shelter. When a war comes on, we are willing to put up with all sorts of economic controls and dictation of even small details of our economic life. When peace is restored we do not continue to ignore it. We cannot substitute the judgment of a few in authority for the free and independent judgments of the community as they are expressed in the market place. We cannot do so, that is, and retain our concept of freedom in a competitive, private enterprise economy.”
The Scorecard
Martin was not only the longest serving Chairman of the Fed; he was arguably the most effective post World War II.
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Prof. Robert Shiller, Federal Reserve.
Martin’s tenure, the economy and the stock market clocked some remarkable gains, with very little inflation and moderate credit growth. The favorable backdrop provided considerable positive momentum. The world economy was recovering from the devastation caused by the war, the baby boomers were starting to roll into the workforce, the international financial system was stable, commerce and trade were expanding, and technical progress was rampant.
Philosophically speaking, it is inconsistent to preach the virtues of the free market while seeking praise for the results it delivers. But the fact remains that the US has never seen such low inflation rates during a period of prolonged economic expansion since Martin’s days at the Fed.
The Fed Then and Now
Comparing Martin’s views with those of his successors, it becomes clear that the Fed has progressively changed its views over the years on how it should conduct monetary policy and the role it should play in economic affairs.
As Chairman, Martin was well known for his tight money policies and anti-inflation bias (see the relevant cover of Time Magazine above), while at the same time pushing for the Fed to have flexibility and discretion in its policymaking. He was able to retain the confidence of five different administrations, even when he had opposed them. His thinking was rooted around facts, emphasizing the importance of statistics over economic theory.
In contrast, his successors particularly since Alan Greenspan all have brilliant academic credentials in economics, but very little hands-on experience in real world affairs (it is insightful to compare the biographies of the heads of the Fed over time and see how much the profile has changed). Accordingly, substantial emphasis is now placed on managing expectations, models and projections, which often have been at odds with some very significant economic outcomes in recent years.
Consider the following. Martin fought against a proposed 2% inflation target, stating that “there is no validity whatsoever that any inflation, once accepted, can be confined to moderate proportions.” At a hearing, he summarized his views on how to steer policy in a free society: "We are dealing with waste and extravagance, incompetency and inefficiency, the only way we have in a free society is to take losses from time to time. This is the loss economy as well as the profit economy."
Now the Fed seems to be diametrically opposed to these views. It is openly pursuing a 2% inflation target; and its actions since the 2008 financial crisis have been specifically designed to prevent losses. After almost six years of massive liquidity injections and pitiful interest rates, we have never left the “bomb shelter”, to paraphrase Martin’s earlier quote.
These losses of course are politically unacceptable today. The government’s debt has ballooned to over 100% of GDP, with no signs of abating over the foreseeable future. When Martin left the Fed in early 1970, financial industry profits as a percentage of total stood at 15%. Today it is double that amount, meaning that out of every dollar in profits generated by Corporate America nearly 30 cents comes from finance.
Therefore, if the Fed were to take away the punchbowl, the economic and political consequences would be very severe today – in the US and abroad. As a result, the Fed can no longer be regarded as truly independent. Martin warned us of the consequences several decades ago: we will continue to deal with waste and extravagance, incompetency and inefficiency for many years to come, and an erosion of the liberties of society.
The Fed’s Legacy
After leaving the Fed, Martin served on the boards of several corporations and nonprofit organizations, including IBM, American Express and the National Geographic Society. Throughout his career he was praised for his competence and honesty. He passed away in 1998, at age 91.
For someone with his pedigree and extensive financial experience, Martin was remarkably humble and also keenly aware of the uncertainties and limitations associated with setting the course for the nation’s monetary policy.
Here’s what he told himself when he took office: ''My gracious, here I am, the new Chairman of the Fed, and I'm doing my best. I'm not the brightest fellow in the world but I'm working hard on this, and I haven't the faintest idea of how you figure the money supply. Yet everybody thinks I have it at my fingertips. They don't really know what the money supply is now, even today. I'm not trying to make fun of it but a lot of it is just almost superstition.”
It appears that such superstition will now be the Fed’s legacy.
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Listen. FUCK YOU BANK OF ENGLAND!
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.Gojob360.com
Then go fuck yourself instead of wasting time here...
My Italian uncle came over here with nothing and made a lot of money. He only knew three words of English but they served him well during the depression. What were the three words? "Stick 'em up".
Look at that asshole Rubin !!!
That Martin dude is lucky not to be alive today, because he sounds like a terrorist.
"I had no choice. Mein Fuher...I mean the President told me what to do and I did it."
Audit, then end the fed.
Skip to the end.
agreed. even that partial audit revealed trillions in "loans" given to banks around the world, interest free. Even socialist bernie sanders has that on his website, and yet nothing changed. Auditing it is pointless if people have the information available to them and still do nothing. Praising the fed chairman is stupid too. He was in charge of an unconsitutional central bank that shouldnt exist, before that he worked for the ex-im bank, which also shouldnt exist. Lionizing a former fed head gives the organization a credibility that it doesnt deserve, and serves to undermine the movement to get rid of it. Come on, tyler
"These days, central banks have become so intertwined with the economy and capital markets that every word uttered by just about any senior Federal Reserve official is endlessly scrutinized to gauge what their next step might be.
But it wasn’t always like this. There were times when the Fed actively defended the strict independence of monetary policy, as well as the role of free markets in creating prosperity and even preserving civil liberties. And those were the days of William McChesney Martin, Jr."...
Get on your hip boot(s) boyz and girlz and pass out the clothespins and shovels!....
The headline gave it away: This is going to be some abstract historical thing that isn’t true put on by the bankers.
Who needs it? But there are some people who agree with that and they give it a high rating….
The Federal Reserve is a cartel operating against the public interest; it is an extreme instrument of usury that generates the nation's most unfair tax, inflation; it not only has destabilized the economy for 100 years, it has encouraged and financed war - world wars.
The touted purpose of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 was to break the grip of the money trust, yet it secretly was written by the money trust and passed by a corrupt Congress to create government by an uncontrolled oligarchy that did not believe in represenative government.
G. Edward Griffin said in The Creature From Jekyll Island that "had that fact been known at the get-go, we would never have had a Federal Reserve System… because that was like asking the fox to build the henhouse and install the security system….
"Prior to this point, American business had been operating under the principles of private enterprise--free enterprise competition is what made American great, what caused it to surpass all of the other nations of the world."
On the subject of the concentration of the money trust’s power in New York, William Greider in his book, “Secrets of the Temple” wrote:
"At the time [about 1913] the conventional wisdom in Congress was that the government institution would finally harness the money trust, disarm its powers and establish broad democratic control over money and credit. The results were nearly the opposite. The money reforms enacted in 1913 in fact helped to preserve the status quo, to stabilize the old order. Money center bankers would not only gain dominance over the new central bank but would also enjoy new insulation against instability and their own decline. Once the Fed was in operation the steady diffusion of financial power halted. Wall Street maintained its dominant position and even enhanced it."
+100000000
During that time, USA was in a practical Military Junta.
Martin was safe as long as Military was behind him.
Quite possible, Junta will take over again in the coming months, after voluntarily ceding power in the early 90s after soviet union fell
My view, just my view, or maybe my wish.
When Junta was ruling, world was doing ok.
We need the Junta back, just my view. US Military is a force for good in the world. We need them into full control as in the 60s and 70s.
My view and my wish.
ekm1
US was doing ok (great) back then because it had plenty of oil and coal; as well as WW-1 and WW-2 in Europe and Asia.
Hence continuation of Saudi + Military Complex alliance for oil control.
Obama/Banklobby are trying to break up that alliance and ally with Iran, which is recipe for open war
Why can't both be accomplished, simultaneously?
Because that is how the world works, back stabbing, lying, killings, intrigues.
Sheer military force needed from time to time to calm the waters down.
Now it is that time, my view
US Military is a force for good in the world. It makes sure energy, commodities, trade flow around the world.
ekm1,
It has too!
US military currency (dollar) is at stake, because of US debt. If there’s no dollar demand, how will the US pay the interest on its debt?
These offshore dollars that keeps their employment.
So, how do you eat dollars?
ekm1,
It’s not about eating dollars, or drinking oil.
Saudi elites need the (pays) US military to stay in power. Agreed. Check
US military needs to get paid in some form of (fiat) global currency. Dollar. Check
Iran has the most strategic (military) location, as well as oil and natural-gas. Check
Nations north of Iran, again some oil and natural-gas. Check
Then, further north, Russia. The last place “to party”, before collapse. Check
My take: I don’t think we (US) can’t win financially, or militarily. It’s too far, to large of an area.
And you are right about Israel having to fend for themselves. As well as, Saudi’s elites.
Nothing good will come from an Empire military and its currency defeat.
We need to do better than this. I am too young to die!
Ekm1 and Excreta...you're a pair of arseholes.
Pure are simple. No debate.
Arseholes.
Obama/Banklobby are trying to break up that alliance and ally with Iran, which is recipe for open war
But Israel will put a stop to it just as they always do through coercion, bribery and blackmail and when all of those don't work a casus belli or two... to keep the bought and paid for shills in Washington in line!
At the rate we're going the legislators in D.C. won't even need to be threatened anymore if this list for "dual citizenship" continus to grow!
Understand that Stan Fischer is out to replace the U.S. Congress with the whole "Tribe" and based on the list I wouldn't put it past him to make that project a complete success!
Members in US politics who hold dual US/Israeli citizenship:
June 2013
Past and Present:
1.Attorney General – Michael Mukasey
2. Head of Homeland Security – Michael Chertoff
3. Chairman Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Richard Perle
4. Deputy Defense Secretary (Former) – Paul Wolfowitz
5. Under Secretary of Defense – Douglas Feith
6. National Security Council Advisor – Elliott Abrams
7. Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff (Former) – “Scooter” Libby
8. White House Deputy Chief of Staff – Joshua Bolten
9. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – Marc Grossman
10. Director of Policy Planning at the State Department – Richard Haass
11. U.S. Trade Representative (Cabinet-level Position) – Robert Zoellick
12. Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – James Schlesinger
13. UN Representative (Former) – John Bolton
14. Under Secretary for Arms Control – David Wurmser
15. Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Eliot Cohen
16. Senior Advisor to the President – Steve Goldsmith
17. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Christopher Gersten
18. Assistant Secretary of State – Lincoln Bloomfield
19. Deputy Assistant to the President – Jay Lefkowitz
20. White House Political Director – Ken Melman
21. National Security Study Group – Edward Luttwak
22. Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Kenneth Adelman
23. Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst (Former) – Lawrence (Larry) Franklin
24. National Security Council Advisor – Robert Satloff
25. President Export-Import Bank U.S. – Mel Sembler
26. Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families – Christopher Gersten
27. Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs – Mark Weinberger
28. White House Speechwriter – David Frum
29. White House Spokesman (Former) – Ari Fleischer
30. Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Henry Kissinger
31. Deputy Secretary of Commerce – Samuel Bodman
32. Under Secretary of State for Management – Bonnie Cohen
33. Director of Foreign Service Institute – Ruth Davis
Current members as best I could find:
Senate:
•Senator Barbara Boxer (California)
•Senator Benjamin Cardin (Maryland)
•Senator Russ Feingold (Wisconsin)
•Senator Al Franken (Minnesota)
•Senator Dianne Feinstein (California)
•Senator Herb Kohl (Wisconsin)
•Senator Frank Lautenberg (New Jersey)
•Senator Joe Lieberman (Connecticut) (Independent)
•Senator Carl Levin (Michigan)
•Senator Bernard Sanders (Vermont) (Independent)
•Senator Charles Schumer (New York)
•Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon)
House of Representatives:
•Representative Gary Ackerman (New York)
•Representative John H. Adler (New Jersey)
•Representative Shelley Berkley (Nevada)
•Representative Howard Berman (California)
•Representative Steve Cohen (Tennessee)
•Representative Susan Davis (California)
•Representative Eliot Engel (New York)
•Representative Bob Filner (California)
•Representative Barney Frank (Massachusetts)
•Representative Gabrielle Giffords (Arizona)
•Representative Alan Grayson (Florida)
•Representative Jane Harman (California)
•Representative Paul Hodes (New Hampshire)
•Representative Steve Israel (New York)
•Representative Steve Kagen (Wisconsin)
•Representative Ronald Klein (Florida)
•Representative Sander Levin (Michigan)
•Representative Nita Lowey (New York)
•Representative Jerry Nadler (New York)
•Representative Jared Polis (Colorado)
•Representative Steve Rothman (New Jersey)
•Representative Jan Schakowsky (Illinois)
•Representative Adam Schiff (California)
•Representative Allyson Schwartz (Pennsylvania)
•Representative Brad Sherman (California)
•Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida)
•Representative Henry Waxman (California)
•Representative Anthony Weiner (New York)
•Representative John Yarmuth (Kentucky)
zatetic June 2013
http://jewishcurrents.org/the-112th-congress-3476
All the jews in congress are democrats or independents (basically democrats) except one, Eric Cantor. He may be the highest ranking Tea Partier elected lol.
http://tinyurl.com/m3wdevf
The value of Israel to USA is just oil in the middle east. Israel has no other value to USA or NATO.
They are a safe launch pad for any action and intelligence penetration.
If theoretically middle east runs out of oil, nobody cares about Israel. US troops will pull back, Israel dies in the hands of arabs.
It is all just oil, nothing else.
Israel is a major ally to control oil in the middle east. That's it.
Nothing more, nothing less
ek
I see the cocks getting shorter and the noses only growing larger in Washington every day!
Just whom pray tell Owns whom?
The one with guns ready to use owns the one without guns or with guns he is affraid to use
Usable Guns rule
If theoretically middle east runs out of oil, nobody cares about Israel…
Oh, if only that were true. But there are few falsehoods as large as this one. Israel is our era’s outpost of Bolshevism. The fight for liberty against this force moved through two world wars and now envelops America in the endless wars of the Middle East. The target: the enemies of Israel, the enemies of Bolshevism. America has been commandeered by the Zionists to shed its blood and its treasure for the Communist model of world government.
Bolshevism is a movement. By creating the state of Israel, we gave it an address.
Son of Captain Nemo
Haven't we been down this road already?
To begin: Cantor is Jew.
More about Captain Nemo spreading erroneous information on the link below
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-19/anarchy-washington-anybody-char...
More about Captain Nemo spreading erroneous information on the link below
I know EI, that's why I want to show that list off as much as possible!
Like cockroaches and rats whn you shine a light on them. ... Isn't it ironic that an ethnic race of peoples that shamelessly tell the biggest lies and love more than money the public's trust and adoration wouldn't be proud to openly endorse their history of the most successful subversions over the largest secular government and military on the planet and still try to hide the Truth in that ultimate of subversions?...
Guess some lies are better left concealed and the names associated with them kept secret -especially when it relates to war crimes and genocide that they were at one time "victims of" as well that got them sweet retribution!
Son of Captain Nemo,
I have NO problem in you releasing information. I think it’s great. It’s obvious that you put lots of effort to gather all of that information.
But, if there's some information that needs to be corrected, once it is shown to be wrong, just make the correction.
That’s it!
Ekm1 and Excreta...arseholes.
By all means EI,
Furnish the information on which ones are in fact NOT "dual citizens" but be generous enough to also ensure that those that aren't are not subverting their oaths while in office by committing open treason on behalf of that Country that the American taxpayer gives more than $4 billion a year to since it's been open for business!
Don’t put this douche up on a pedestal. Just because the system was under less stress under his tenure thus his policies and rhetoric seemed less extreme, this doesn’t mean that he was any better than the scum bags today. HE was just lucky enough to be part of the beginning of the Ponzi scheme in the beginning of this 70 year debt created bubble. Still a crook, overseeing a fraudulent system.
Thank you for introducing some fucking sanity into this conversation.
What the fuck is up with ZH these days lauding a central banker?
He did put a serial number on the currency. "It could be counted" and thus did indeed create a "money supply."
That is the "power" of the Fed...and indeed it is an awful truth...as they all are. "Debasement cannot be done secretly." And indeed...while Einstein said "not everything that counts can be counted" he was was in fact totally wrong when it came to actual cash.
He totally missed the revolution in statistics as well.
Great physicist...but like so many spent the rest of his life trying to turn lead into gold. It was the chemists and statisticians who turned "e=mc2" into something practicable.
He also totally missed out on Quantam Mechanics. His theory that time was not an absolute though is pretty good...
Tesla asked Einstein if nothing can travel faster then light how do you explain electron spin? Electrons spin faster then light. Under Einsteins theory nothing can move faster then light.
Einstein's theories crushed true science advancement for 100 years.
Tesla was the real deal but of course everyone made him out to be the fool.
Right, just because fuckers back in that day of the fed "showed restraint" in comparison to the monetary malarky we see today, that's reason to laud them? F that. Theft is theft is theft is theft, PERIOD.
agreed. END THE FED. and before the fed, he was at ex-im bank, which also shouldn't exist. And things were so great for the US economy during his years because of the aftermath of WWII. Europe, russia, china, japan, phillipines, etc were all completely destroyed, the US was the only major economy whose infrastructure wasnt flattened. Plus, back then, we actually made shit here, and sold it around the world. It had nothing to do with the fed, and it is also why those boom times will never be repeated, absent a similar world war. In an age of ballistic missles and nuclear weapons, the US would not be able to emerge from it unscathed either.
So much has changed since that time it's tough to know what can be attributed to him, and what is broader societal trends. The two obvious differences are that in the immediate post-war world, the U.S. was the sole standing undamaged large manufacturing economy in the world, and the dollar was still backed by gold. He represented the thinking of his time. The leadership of today, both within and outside the Fed, both think differently (the point of this article), but also face a completely different environment based on events to this point. Which came first, chicken or egg?
The economy is dead. It died in 2008. It is on life support, which is fiat to infinity. Until a black swan crashes it, or the masses catch on. The masses probably won't catch on. It is football season, as we know. And the Voice is starting with new episodes.
I spent the last week on holiday, a couple of days shared with a Doctor and her high tech IT beau. My wife explained I was weird. That broached the subject. I tickled them, lightly, they could not have cared less.
Their final response was typical. We will just come to your house!
My response was typical. " You've been warned. I'll share any and all info if you are curious. And you can decide how to proceed. In the event of SHTF, do NOT come calling. There will be NO warning shots. Ammo is precious".
They left a day early.
old school ... in the mdoern world the manipulation of social media and the automation of service industries makes economic a dead language (like latin)
we are rapidly approaching the day when automation grows food, builds houses and cures sickness.
capital formation, inventory changes, changes in money supply are just not relevant. we are redefining wealth and its redistribution. what to do with permanently unemployed people who have been replaced by automation? the fed preserves the old paradigm and finance gets in the way of the natural corrollary of "wealth = not needing to work" and people extending fitness to pursue strenuous physical activities from 28 to 60.
what is the purpose of politics and economics when wealth = not needing to work because all work is automated? do you nationalize all service economies and let 80% of the population "retire" to pursue happiness without working or allow the private sector to rack up profits and let the 80% remain as indentured debt serfs?
hmmm
One word.. Energy
"There were times when the Fed actively defended the strict independence of monetary policy, as well as the role of free markets in creating prosperity..."
Now we have the FED actively attacking free markets and destroying prosperity.
"there was a time when the fed gave lip service and still thieved and thieved and thieved...now they just thieve"
FTFY
Today the FED and other cental banks are global terrorists that attempt to control all nations as nation states. Back then they were maximizing profits. In many cases that meant maximizing productivity. The current terrorism phase of central banks will also run its course. Hopefully the end of this phase will see them and all those connected to them hung.
"The Committee to Save the World"
How is that working out so far? It isn't.
Look at that smirk on Greenspan's face. Then realize what he has done to you. Now we have Yellen telling people on food stamps that they need to build up assets.
The Committee to Save the World has the people even deeper in debt, heading toward an even greater crash.
Ah yeah the FED thrift meme............
The oldest con of all.
http://api.ning.com/files/llWAGERSdbZ-W6a5fsEcvb4qP1BWqPf3dd-t5FuDmP2AdjRHoU3gXEmi-od4QwCERZLaY1t0aaXgbceKbJKgniO2-DPB3yKd/a1withchristmaspresent.jpg
Money should never be tight.
Credit maybe but never money. (of course if money tokens were free there would be no need for credit or insurrance)
PS - what is dear Janet really saying when she declares that we must accumulate wealth claims.
What happens to a life between birth and death ?
Why are you forced to save to gain access through the fucking pearly gates.
Cork,
Money should never be tight.
Would you care to elaborate more, please?
Because I believe you’ll find lots of resistance here.
Read a few books or something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVk4nh-hBKY
Now fuck off.
heh...woops.no no ..that's not funny!
ha. good on ya dork
THE DORK OF CORK
So, you are against deflation, I take. However, many Hedgers are deflationary, gold bugs.
So, I assumed that you are on the “Free-Money” (tokens) and NO interest rate on these ‘tokens’.
Anyway, I think many here missed a great opportunity to that (your) point of view.
And you only have yourself to blame.
"So , you are against deflation"
First of all I am with Rab in the power to both express and project me power - so it does not matter much when confronted with the full masonic mind fuck that is Europe and America these past 400 years.
But the above is a simple question which hangs in the air without any context.
I am against deflation in a debt money system as it is outright theft.
If we lived in a social credit universe then deflation would be good as prices would come down relative to a equal sharing of a nations capital base amongest its people.
Just to remind dear Zero hedgers.
THERE IS NO REAL SCARCITY.
The bottom line is this is an institution primarily charged with the task of protecting the money cartel. And when push comes to shove that is what it will do at all cost, in the name of "saving the world." How convenient.
As we have seen, the idea of creating jobs and preventing financial excess is all a cheap charade.
Full stop.
Dual Mandate
It's For the Children
The bigger lie told to the sheep ?????
If we end the Fed, rate setting tasks would still need to be performed by someone or some group. If the setting of these financial levers gets left to Congress or politicians, we would most surely all be living in squalor...or in a civil war maybe. If the Fed truly is corrupt to the core, we are all screwed anyway. But there is logic behing the dual mandate of balancing inflation and job growth. The fact that such a crappy job is being done doesn't change the importance of the task.
said the dupe
Dwight Eisenhower who was president from 1952 - 60, balanced the Federal budget every year as he saw first hand in Europe the ultimate consequences of deficeit spending in Germany. See Versailles Treaty.
It was prudent fiscal policy by Eisenhower, not Martin's monetary policy that provided the basis for prosperity.
That's why only puppets get to be POTUS these days
You didnt mention that during Eisenhower's presidency we had a protected and hummimg manufacturing sector making things. Any average joe (and black people) could get a good paying job.
Ike also went all in on infastructure and putting people to work building our interstate highway system.
We didnt print money out of thin air to create "growth" like we do nowadays.
"When a war comes on, we are willing to put up with all sorts of economic controls and dictation of even small details of our economic life. When peace is restored we do not continue to ignore it. We cannot substitute the judgment of a few in authority for the free and independent judgments of the community as they are expressed in the market place. We cannot do so, that is, and retain our concept of freedom in a competitive, private enterprise economy.”
McChesney never lived under perpetual war on terrorism. Perpetual war does not restore peace.
Oh nooes ZH likes this banker.
And heavens, Lovey, he's a Yale man!
All that maybe true but the TRUTH is the FED is an immoral, unethical and evil wealth skimming operation, pure and simple, cut and dried! Any questions?
How stupid can you be? We've been warning you for years. Have a look.
Rothschilds Want Iran's Bankshttp://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-A0eem5ON6Q
Total control equates to policy domination. Remember that during your next asshat politician vote.
Standing on the shoulders of shills makes you look tall but it's all an illusion. (And a long way to fall.)
All this stuff now about boots on the ground in Africa.
I remember a couple of years ago all this cash was forced into oil futures and it
flew up to $140/barrel.Riots in all these small towns in Africa over the instantaneous
300% inflation for fuel for their Primus cookers which they depend on.
Lots of oil in Africa.It is just transported overseas.I think the (US) troops for Africa
are not there for Ebola but to maintain stability and the status quo.It was clearly
shown in the Uganda rampages how quickly things can accelerate out of control.
Bill Clinton got his fingers burned in Mogadishu and therefore decided it was a local
African issue."Acts of genocide might have occurred,but not genocide".
I hope there is a hot place in hell for some of these bastards.
Since there is no gold to back paper,it will have to be oil,and the Saudis are not
cooperating.Gotta find some oil.Russians vs. yanks in Arctic? Hmmm......
A "central-banker, then or now, is a thief.
An American, not US subject.
"Guillotine the Fed!"
If Congress wanted to reign in the Fed they could do so by removing the 'employment' mandate. Obviously, Congress does not want to do so.
i'm sorry, but after taking the better part of my last 15 years, now at the tender age of 34--i've come to realize the greater portion of detailed history is total lies that were enshrined in 'biographical' literature.
the bible is mostly a lie when it comes to details. all bios are mostly lies. napolean said this as have many others.
perhaps the broad swaths of information we have can be somewhat accurate. but the detailed biograhpies , lies.
the ones that are flattering get written. the ones that aren't DONT. writing costs money. and historical literature and biography is the category of self flattering books mostly---IN SO FAR AS IT IS EVEN WRITTEN.
this man---was important,. this man wasn't. etc etc etc......
i'm listened to jim grants' from the interest rate observer discuss teh good ol' days.
good ol' compared to what? recent history has it's place in history. but good ol' days compared to the civil war? revolutionary war?
there is this tinged historical sentimentality brough to these kinds of stories. and over the years, the more i've understood our quiltwork of lies, the more i've regretted spending time reading stuff like the above story.
yes yes. those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. perhaps the lie is that those who do read history and understand the lies, are doomed to something even worse than repeating it?
we are always recreating the dialectical story. at any given point in time the leading dialectic is the WINNING DYNAMIC OF POPULAR LIES ABOOUT HOW THINGS WORK.
in so far as a dialectic is WINNING the attention of puplic minds either being 'for' or 'against' the proposals offered by the dialectic----------then a person who accepts the dialectic as winning is mostly inclined to go along with focussing on extracting power out of playing with that dialectic.
it is only for the genuine ideologue to create the 'third way' , a new dialectic which he hopes long after he is dead might succeed in chaning the way people measure their world and judge it.
there is no power or profit in creating those buddling seeds of new dialectics in the present. for the profits are only reaped , like the olive fruit of an olive tree, LONG AFTER THEY ARE PLANTED.
those in power are slaves to manipulating the dialectics as much as a queen ant is a slave to those worker ants of her swarm. she of course is the dominant , and may even have the genetic means to make an escape if her hive is destroyed and the workers with it.
but her power comes from controlling the hive from the top down using the phermonens and other means available to her. like a sweet smelling drug to the masses-----the elites use the sweet smelling attention of the dialectics to stir the passions of anger on either side of the story. tea party? occupier? hate the government? need more of it?
cognitivie dissonance treets this topic but morally condemns those follow the dialectics , preaching the higher path of ignoring it. i wouldn't go so far to make moral judgements myself. but FUCK READING STUPID BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORIES AND LIES IT IS A WASTE OF YOUR TIME.
Money grew at less than a 2 percent rate in the decade ending in 1964. But, in the subsequent decade, the money supply grew at a rate in excess of 6.5 percent.
Martin didn't have a problem until he switched from using a net free or a net borrowed reserve position approach to using interest rates as the monetary transmission mechanism in 1965.