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Some Shocking Perspectives On Inflation And Currency Destruction By None Other Than The Federal Reserve
Going back to the FOMC's own archives reveals some truly stunning disclosures arising from none other than the Federal Reserve on the topics of inflation, currency "debauching", money creation, and what it would take for the Communists and Stalin to win.
We begin with this 1951 letter from then Fed Chairman Thomas McCabe to Senator O'Mahoney defending the true independence of the Fed, and in objection to its being subsumed by the Treasury-banker oligarchy superclass:
I agree with you entirely that the Soviet dictators would like to bring about our economic collapse and, as you know, inflation is perhaps the greatest force for arraying the various sectors of a capitalistic economy against each other. John Maynard Keynes stated in his 'Economic Consequences of the Peace' (1919): 'Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency...Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of Society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.'
...
Confidence of the public in Government securities as well as in other forms of liquid savings is inextricably bound up with public confidence in the value of the dollar. With the large overhand of such liquid savings, and considering among other things the heavy maturities of savings bonds coming up next year, it is extremely important that confidence in the dollar be firmly established by Government policies that destroy the inflation threat at its roots. Continuation of too easy money policies will make it next to impossible to engender confidence in the sustained real value of Government securities.
The interest cost on the public debt should be as low as is consistent with economic stability. Interest rates should be high enough, however, so that the debt will be bought and firmly held by the investing public and will not need the support of an undue amount of money creation.... We should also keep in mind that interest rates on short-term Government securities also decline in periods of recession as they did in the 30's and more recently in 1949. I am old fashioned enough to believe that history will repeat itself and that over a period of years interest rates will fluctuate with changing economic conditions.
The Federal Reserve has always tried to avoid conflict with the Treasury. The record over the years shows patience, compromise and much sacrifice of basic convictions to this end. I am still hopeful that a basis of mutual understanding and agreement can be reached. If not, we will have no defensible alternative save but to do what, in our considered judgment, is for the best interests of the country, in accordance with our statutory responsibilities. We can, of course, always go to the Congress that created us and to whom we report and appeal for a redefinition of our responsibilities.
Source: Fed Intermeeting Executive Minutes, February 14, 1951
Not if in the pursuit of central planning, the Fed has effectively made Congress and its persistent inability to pass any laws, obsolete. But let's go on with the following statement by Fed governor Marriner Eccles:
[We are making] it possible for the public to convert Government securities into money to expand the money supply....We are almost solely responsible for this inflation. It is not deficit financing that is responsible because there has been surplus in the Treasury right along; the whole question of having rationing and price controls is due to the fact that we have this monetary inflation, and this committee is the only agency in existence that can curb and stop the growth of money.... [W]e should tell the Treasury, the President, and the Congress these facts, and do something about it....We have not only the power but the responsibility....If Congress does not like what we are doing, then they can change the rules.
Source: FOMC Minutes, 2/6/51, pp. 50–51
We continue with this pearl from the same Eccles:
We favor the lowest rate of interest on government securities that will cause true investors to buy and hold these securities. Today’s inflation. . . is due to mounting civilian expenditures largely financed directly or indirectly by sale of Government securities to the Federal Reserve.... The inevitable result is more and more money and cheaper and cheaper dollars.
Source: FOMC Minutes, 2/7/51, p. 60
We continue with this excerpt from Fed Governor Martin's speech accepting the appointment to the Board of Governors:
Unless inflation is controlled, it could prove to be an even more serious threat to the vitality of our country than the more spectacular aggressions of enemies outside our borders. I pledge myself to support all reasonable measures to preserve the purchasing power of the dollar.
We end with this underappreciated exchange between Marriner Eccles and Representative Wright Patman, confirming that the Fed has not been independent in over 60 years
Patman: Don’t you think there is some obligation of the Federal Reserve System to protect the public against excessive interest rates?
Eccles: I think there is a greater obligation to the American public to protect them against the deterioration of the dollar.
Patman: Who is master, the Federal Reserve or the Treasury? You know, the Treasury came here first.
Eccles: How do you reconcile the Treasury’s position of saying they want the interest rate low, with the Federal Reserve standing ready to peg the market, and at the same time expect to stop inflation?
Patman: Will the Federal Reserve System support the Secretary of the Treasury in that effort [to retain the 2 1/2 percent rate] or will it refuse?. . . You are sabotaging the Treasury. I think it ought to be stopped.
Eccles: [E]ither the Federal Reserve should be recognized as having some independent status, or it should be considered as simply an agency or a bureau of the Treasury. (U.S. Congress 1951, pp. 172–76)
Source: U.S. Congress 1951, pp. 172–7
And as an added bonus, we demonstrate that using the threat of Mutual Assured Destruction if politicians (coughhankpaulsoncough) don't get what they want, the end is nigh. From president Harry Truman's letter to Fed governor Thomas McCabe:
[W]e must combat Communist influence on many fronts.. . . [I]f the people lose confidence in government securities all we hope to gain from our military mobilization, and war if need be, might be jeopardized.”
I hope the Board will. . . not allow the bottom to drop from under our securities. If that happens that is exactly what Mr. Stalin wants.
Source: FOMC Minutes, 1/31/1951
By "Communist influence" and "Stalin" America's 33rd president, Harry Truman, a "Democrat", of course meant the US Treasury which needed to find, at any cost, a funder of only resort for what would one day become trillion dollar annual deficits, and the US banker superclass, which needed, at any cost, to have full control over the entity that would print US currency at will whenever the specter of deflation threatened to destroy all the accumulated equity-based wealth of the status quo.
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In Amerika, Federal Reserve Bank steals from you, Comrade Bitchez!
Only Ben Shalom and Jon Corzine have immunity.
Must.Not.Let.Silver.Pass.36.$
The Fed increased the monetary base 18% in the 50s, most of it to finance the Korean War. What a difference from today.
GZG Please stop with the inane comments...it really is tiresome. How you come up with this shit is beyond me.
I was so fucking glad when they banned you from the Kitco forum.
How in the fuck do you get banned from a gold forum?
If one is a member of the hyper-controlled, rigidly-monitored, overtly unfree Kitco mockery of a forum, being banned is only a matter of time --- it is impossible to avoid indefinitely, due to the crazily thin-skinned, uber-politically-correct, and utterly intolerant "moderators" employed by Kitco. And above all, NEVER insult nor highlight in any way the disingenuous anti-gold propaganda of their intellectually and morally crippled official spokesman, Jon Nadler.
(And "moderator" ynot2k, you vile and malicious bastard, may you rot in Hell for your extreme intolerance, capricious abuse of power, and gross hypocrisy.)
"...not one man in a million years is capable of diagnosing..
Get it right God Dammit.
I've worked it out. The FED creates inflation. Otherwise we would have deflation.
Deflation is the productive mans gift to mankind.
With deflation :-
20 year olds will spend every dollar, without worrying too much about anything.
30 years olds will spend every dollar too, but worry about it.
40 year olds will save to retire at 50.
50 year olds who are still working are probably enjoying it.
The Financial Elite won't like it! Really clever people will be retiring at 30!
Yes. That is correct.
In fact they do not even try to hide it. See the Fed minutes from the post-internet-bubble period, when they explicitly listed fear of deflation as the reason for easing.
Rising productivity would natrually lead to deflation if not countered by an increasing money supply.
In some sectors (computers) the productivity gains are so high you still get deflation anyway. The world does not implode. Everybody just gets cheaper computers.
The FED is good for only one thing. Printing money. Vast amounts of it.
http://jamesturkblog.blogspot.ca/
I have a whole new respect for twolips.
Somehow I think there are more than 300 or so that have properly diagnosed the issue!
Stalin for the win!
To Infinity and Beyond!!!! (Bernanke Buzz Lightyear)
Hmmmm, ask Gideon about his 300. Much can be done with few.
Very interesting you mentioned this, in light of the Arab Spring turning Summer, as in the days of Noah.
Reasonable and rational men used to be the leaders. Now, they are the hunted ones.
Eat shit, slaves-Dr. Bernank
The problem with the Kenynesian "Print Mo' Money" solution, is that once you give the keys of the printing press to the politicians, they never turn it off.
That's been my concern with doing away with the Fed, that all would then be controlled by politicians. There's really not, I think, any clear win (given only these two choices).
"We will bury you" .... Nikita Kruschev.
The press picked it up but the american media misunderstood and misconstrued what he meant so pathetically .....
While it may seem to some of the commenters here that the time and effort of reading "War and Peace" is not worth the gain,
I found that it reveals a great, great deal about russian strategy .... it is still workinng the same way .... and it works so well ....
"We will bury you" .... Nikita Kruschev
Almost there comrades...
You have the 60 year play book. They buy treasuries or the dollar collapses. Simple as that. The bonds are always money-good. There can be no other way for this system to survive.
Btw, this has been the case since the mid 19th century and Jay Cook cornered the federal government loan origination market. The government allows the banks to leverage so long as they use government debt as the leveraging instrument. It's that simple. The Fed will always hold the line on the government debt market.
Nothing "shocking" here, price discovery is long dead.
Jon Corzine says, suck my ballsack, I'm above the law.
You can thank O for that
CONVICTED: Bush 1300+, Clinton 1000+, Obama 0.0 (+/-)
O’s filthy money man
Obama & Biden Praise Crook Jon Corzine"I'm above the law."
No, he's beyond the ENFORCEMENT of the law. How fucking convenient...
USA! USA! USA!
funny you say that...this past weekend many drunkin young and old adults were chanting this same thing at a local brewing establishment. little do they know, as george carlin once said. they all have a red, white and blue dick jammed up their ass. laughable
Tree + Rope + Fed banksters = a good start
And those idiots are trying to create ANOTHER housing bubble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/why-did-the-fed-do-qe...
Like his opinion on gold, Mr. Bernanke thinks those comments are barbaric relics. #Idiot
There goes the Feds plausible deniability.
/sarc
I fully expect the Fed will be long gone from the equation when the system goes down. The rhetoric lately all feels the same... the baton is being passed to the politicians. And we all know where that leads.
Hell?
QEX is issued and political flareups ensue.
Ironic?
What if China was going to spend their dollars but then Japan, by proxy of the US (Trilateral Commission), began to take their eyes off of finance and towards war?
Same with the flareups in the ME.
The Central Planners have gone full retard and will need distraction after distraction to keep everyone to not see the collapsing fiat "money" system. All fiat is now dead. This will be realized by the status quo shortly, if by war or wonder.
"We're all Communists Now"
Outstanding post. No one ever uses the word "profound" to describe things that aren't true. The Eccles / Patman exchange is priceless.
meanwhile....the US slowly sinking into a hole:
http://enenews.com/officials-new-footage-shows-sinkhole-is-growing-rumors-of-forced-evacuation-video
WE CONTINUE OUR BEARISH VIEW:- SHORTING EURO, US FINANCIALS AND US HOUSING STOCKS PERIOD....WE HOWEVER LIKE PHYSICAL GOLD AND CURRENCIES LIKE CAD, MXN & CHF BUT SHORTING THE AUD AND GBP....THANK U BEN
Our once great nation can now be conquered without firing a single shot.
On the contrary-me thinks many shots will be fired.
This posting should rank right up there with the WSJ's editorial No Guard Rails on several decades ago as regards truth and timeliness. Tylers, I both appreciate an applaud all your efforts.
The FED will always do what is necessary to protect the banks ... it just happens now that inflation is good and back then inflation was bad for the banks
I thought Bernank Shalom was a historian...?? Or does he just collect Hagannah GI Joes to fluff his duff with?
WRITE IN RON PAUL!!!!!!!
Write in Ron Paul ... elect Obama ... great plan
https://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=743474
Obummer looking good for a second term, but we can all blame it on the Libs and Ron Paul write ins later.
Another four years of Obama will be far worse than four years of Romney ... Obamacare, Cap/Trade, and energy strangulation will bury us
That isn't what will bury us. Debt is what will bury us, Obama is only creating his own army of entitled fucktards for when the shit hits the fan. He's building his own idiot fighters for totalitarianism, they are just too stupid to know it.
Ron Paul was the only Republican candidate who beat Obama in the polls during the Republican primaries. Others were close, but behind. Romney is Obama, and Obama is Romney. We lose either way.
I understand that Ron Paul was the only candidate that would work to break the elitist grip on our nation. But he didn't make it. Now our choice between Obama and Romney is all we have.
Obama will continue to centralize power, leach the middle class, control healthcare, increase energy restrictive edicts, and general rule as a dictator through executive orders. When it comes time to confiscate gold he will ... the last time this happened it lasted for 40 years.
and so will Romney.
"Obama will continue to centralize power, leach the middle class, control healthcare, increase energy restrictive edicts, and general rule as a dictator through executive orders."
Romney is no different, and would continue the corrupt policies that were set in place by Obama and his predecessors. Someone posted this video on ZH before. It showed me how alike the two candidates are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWDJEc92d38
"When it comes time to confiscate gold he will ... the last time this happened it lasted for 40 years."
If I cannot make use of it, I'll pass it on to my kids or grandkids. Someone in my line will be able to use it. Until then, it remains at the bottom of a nearby lake.
I was going to post that same link. Vote third party or stay home in protest seems to be the only response to the Obomney non-choice.
Only write in Ron Paul if he decides to run a write in campaign (not likely). To my knowledge not many states even count votes unless the candidate files for a write in campaign. The only person you're making a statement to is the person counting the ballots and yourself. Better off voting Gary Johnson or some other third party candidate.
That would mean that gold is a strategic metal, whose price has geopolitical ramifications.
Some things never change and some people never learn.
Here is a Chicago Tribume cartoon circa 1934 courtesy of nowandfutures. The cartoon is a the bottom of the link (how do you insert images in ZH?)
http://www.nowandfutures.com/great_depression.html
A trifle self serving don't yee think lads ?
Just allow capital to invest in what others perceive as capital via the free banking credit system that uses the currency with the FULL BACKING OF THE FED to create unsustainable credit bubbles......Yeah right.
The inflation of the money is after the fucking event.
We have entered the credit event horizon some time ago now.....just saying like.
Congress must create more debt under the present system - otherwise the guys who benefited from the credit hyperinflation get to keep their winnings via debt and not real resourse Austerity.
If you want to stop this from happening again you prevent Free Banks from naked shorting the currency when they create bank credit.
This is much worse then the free banking crisis of the 19th century as at least those banks had the decency to use their own fucking currency.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto
I believe in the above.... does that make me a commie bastard ?
Perhaps.
This is all fine and good, but there are MUCH greater threats to our future, such as the decline of resources (and the current projection of an increasing population/demand).
We'll never be able to properly assess the real value of things because of human nature's bent of deception (primitive survival mechanism). Having a concentration of power just means that diversity has to be crushed; this is also a crushing of a diversity of thought, thought that would warn of an impending systemic failure...
No, no thanks on the offer for shifting this power to the State. Oh, and for the record: BIG = FAIL!
This public transport story needs to be told.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westside_Express_Service
What other mode of transport system refurbishes 1950s vehicles to supplement modern unreliable buy America vehicles ?
They perhaps may need to reconsider restarting the Budd railcar production line with possibly a lighter upper body replaceable section.
The Bicycle storage area is the largest I have seen on a commuter train , its pure decadence when seen from a European perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCScJdmMUgc
And only 1,750 users a day !!
In Europe pre crash it would be standing room only for a route that passes through towns of 50,000 – 80,000 population.
But still ,it strikes me as a great project if inflation is coming down the tracks
Question though....
Why have they not continued Salem ?
Lack of money ?
Resistance by private rail road companies ?
If so the lack of money causes a increase in waste.
So called ponzi - austerity to bail out the oligarchs.
The trains are going to take people to non-existent jobs?
Fuel consumption is on decline. Employment is down. The correlation should be clear.
We've got WAY more transportation than we need. We don't have a transportation problem.
Years ago I spent time lobbying (within groups of politically active people) that we should cut new road construction funding and direct the bulk of those cuts in the form of tax breaks to businesses hiring local people.
Stop transporting people all over the place! It's a total abomination of how nature operates; and, one day we'll have no other choice as there won't be the available energy to do so (and I'd place a large wager that there will also be a corresponding decline in large corporate businesses [demand drop]).
Like Keynes invented inflation...
Inflation started the very instance fractional banking was "discovered."
I suppose people need a voodoo doll to poke pins in, so his is as good as any.
@Seer
Check out that video - the roads look pretty full to me when they were testing these old /new units back in late 2010.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoAl7rWBzzE
And even so the passenger numbers are up in 2012 (from 1,640 to 1,750 a day)
And people are spread out all over the place right now , you can't reverse that in a instant.
Besides the track to Salem exists r now , IN THE PRESENT, it just needs relaying and resignaling , which is more labour intensive rather then energy intensive work such as new road works etc etc
The advantage of train stations is that they become NODAL POINTS giving some rationality to the settlement pattern.
Trains if well built can keep going into their 50s and beyond.......
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Rail_Diesel_Car
Private cars just sit around in driveways and outside workstations doing zero work and when they do work they burn fuel per person at a epic level.
Once trains are kept full at all times they beat all other forms of transport for fuel use - the trouble is with the monetary envoirment.
for example - Airlines respond to higher fuel costs by cutting wages rather then switching into new transport options...this appears to work until everbody elses job is much like a low price airline job - shit.
When everybody has just a shit job with little time & money the airline itself goes bust for want of passengers but it does not have to be this way.
You're arguing MODE, I'm arguing demand. Well... I'm arguing what will be in (or in the case not in) demand in the future.
Despite the growth of APPL I'm not seeing that big corporate-level jobs are going to be around in the future. The income made available by these jobs covers more elaborate transportation; ultimately, however, it's VOLUME that paves the way, and I just ain't seeing a shift back toward increased corporate-type employment.
NOTE: I commuted by bicycle for FIVE straight years (also did bus commuting*) so I DO have a concept of commuting using "alternative" methods. NO train is going to be more efficient than a bicycle. One can make all sorts of rationalization for why they can't ride a bike to/from work, just as they can make all sorts of excuses for why they NEED a 3,000 sq ft home... * Buses are FAR more efficient when you factor in the TRUE costs (they allow for flexibility, change routes to meet needs- hard to do on fixed rail).
@Seer
Buses don't last - they die after 10~ years or less.
Besides I am not saying we replace buses - look at the new French heavy tram systems , in a typical small city they form the spine to the public transport system.....buses then feed the new nodal points....its a beautiful system.
This transport pattern will not change until people leave the cities to go hunting & gathering.
PS why not use rail in addition to your bike....train ends in point A after 10 miles , point B another 10 miles away.....cycle to point B.
Many people cannot do a 20 mile cycle without being unfit for physical work.
PS the UK rail network is already reaching capacity because of a lack of fiscal investment (it shifts more people around that Island then ever before , more then even the Suez & the first & second world war and yet it is a minor player in the transport sphere with respect to road.
Once the state system does not collapse in a Soviet like fashion which was in fact a take down any remaining transport will flow to rail if it is available.
It will essentially capture the remaining flow in the correct monetary fiscal & geographical envoirment.
taking from people to accomplish your goals. sicko! if its a good idea get people to volunteer their time money property and effort. sell it! dont steal to make it happen.
You "I want it. I say its a good idea. I will get a mob to agree. we will take your life to make it happen why? Because I think it is beautiful "