The Federal Express, Er, Reserve
If you are still fuzzy on just what exactly the Federal Reserve does and who exactly it is, please read this article. It’s ironic this information, which will never be printed in the major US media, has to be explained to us by our former communist adversary. Now this Russian newspaper is schooling us on our own Constitution:
It usually comes as a shock to people – especially diehard Americans who place infinite trust in their sacred Constitution – when they discover that the US dollar is not a product of the American government. That’s right, fellow consumers, that crumpled wad of dollars in your pocket is the product of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and despite the very official title, is about as “federal” as Federal Express. The reality is that the U.S. Federal Reserve is a profit-making venture just like Wal-Mart, General Motors or McDonald’s.
It’s really too bad the American people didn’t recognize that nothing, not health care, not carbon emissions, not tax rates, not race relations, not gay rights — not any of the above — is fundamentally important as having a stable economy. Because without that, everything is chaotic, unfunded, unenforceable, irrelevant. And it’s too bad that almost no voters realized the great cancer in our economy; the tumor from which all other tumors arise, is the Federal Reserve. Had they realized this, they would have voted for the one Presidential candidate who ever bothered to talk about the Federal Reserve: Ron Paul.
But they didn’t. Some voted for a continuation of a military empire. Some voted for the hopeychange. Hopeychange and military empires both rest on the soundness of economy for implementation, and therefore both are doomed.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending upon your stance, the fall — at least in this country — may be mercifully sudden. It seems Congress is doing everything possible to throw all the money we don’t even have at all the things that will do nothing to help us. Case in point: billions in foreign aid, billions in loans to the corrupt IMF, and more. Once again the voice of reason is drowned out by the voices of special interest, the voices of goodwill, the voices of the ambitious, the voices of denial. You’ve failed three times in a row, Freddy Mac? Hell, here’s some more billions. To the American citizens: screw you. Get back to work.
Long ago, we’ve traded what works for what “sounds nice.” Imagine if a colony of ants. There are fundamental injustices in the ant colony: the workers (all female) are overburdened. The drones (all male) are parasites who offer almost nothing, but eat great amounts of food. The queen is an unelected dictator. However, if you try to correct all those imbalances by forsaking the daily drive to collect food, come winter, every single ant in that colony will be dead.
Hope and goodwill are not enough. Perhaps this winter will be enough to convince us.
Today’s article of doom: Well, it’s a chart really. When Obama says 10% unemployment, he really means 20%. Why? Because you’re only unemployed if you receive unemployment benefits. If your benefits run out and you still don’t have a job, you’re not unemployed. You’re a “discouraged worker,” a.k.a. deadbeat. If you’re fresh out of school and you can’t find a job, you’re not unemployed, because you were never employed before. If you work only 10 hours a week, you’re also not unemployed. Hell, if you work on commission, and make 10% of what you used to, you’re still not unemployed. Nor are you unemployed if you don’t make money but are in prison, are disabled, etc. Not to mention the figure is adjusted for birth and death rates artificially in the favor of lower unemployment figures.
So again, the real rate of people who can’t support themselves is 20%:
Promote the Greatest Failures (Or Is It Criminals?)
A post from the very informative Zero Hedge blog summed up some of the more noteworthy comments from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury during this economic debacle:
April 20th, 2007 – Paulson: “I don’t see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it’s going to be largely contained. All the signs I look at show the housing market is at or near the bottom.”
June 20th, 2007 – Bernanke: “(the subprime fallout) will not affect the economy overall.”
October 15th, 2007 – Bernanke: “It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve — nor would it be appropriate — to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions.”
May 16th, 2008 – Paulson: “In my judgment, we are closer to the end of the market turmoil than the beginning.”
June 9th, 2008 – Bernanke: “Despite a recent spike in the nation’s unemployment rate, the danger that the economy has fallen into a substantial downturn appears to have waned.”
July 20th, 2008 – Paulson: “It’s a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation.”
August 10th, 2008 – Paulson: “We have no plans to insert money into either of those two institutions.” (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)
February 29th, 2008 – Bernanke: “I expect there will be some failures. I don’t anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system.”
September 19th, 2008 – Paulson: “We’re talking hundreds of billions of dollars – this needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get at the heart of the problem,” he said. “This is the way we stabilize the system.”
September 19th, 2008 – Bernanke: “most severe financial crisis” in the post-World War II era. Investment banks are seeing “tremendous runs on their cash,” Bernanke said. “Without action, they will fail soon.”
And now, the Obama team’s brilliant idea is to give the Federal Reserve sweeping new powers, in tandem with the Treasury, to regulate the banking system. The very ones who were purportedly clueless about what was unfolding, as well as being the ones who caused it (by artificially lowering interest rates to encourage mortgage lending, thereby bypassing the effects of the dot com bubble bursting), are now going to be in charge. After, of course, they engineered the transfer of wealth of the entire future generation to the bottom line of the richest banks. Bravo.
It’s like taking the executives from General Motors and then creating a regulatory agency for all motor vehicles and putting them at the helm. In short, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Let’s not forget also, that the Federal Reserve, the organization that controls our money supply, and will soon control the entire regulatory system, is a private corporation. Like “Federal” Express. If you aren’t aware of these factors, I suggest checking out this week’s episode of Freedom Watch, which is one of the very view shows on mainstream TV that talk about these issues.
Or, read this book:
But, since we all know the Federal Reserve has more cumulative power than the US president and his staff, dating back several decades from the point in which the US was arguably effectively bankrupt (though this fact was disguised) and real wealth — gold — was outlawed from public ownership and transferred to pay off international debts and the income tax was established to pay interest on our remaining debts… well, we all know this legislation will pass and the central banks won’t have to rule from the shadows any more. No one wants to be seen as undermining our magical new President’s will, therefore, it will pass.
In the words of Kurt Vonnegut: so it goes.
Today’s article of doom: political correctness is way out of hand when people are arrested to make up a “fair” quota of racial balance completely at odds with established crime statistics.
Crashing Down Now! 