Friday, July 19, 2013

What Every Student (and Citizen) in America Needs to Know About the Federal Reserve

Excerpts from on essay on Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog:
Frequent contributor Jeff W. recently penned this succinct explanation of the Federal Reserve, and he did so with such clarity that in my view this is the essential primer on the Fed that every high school and college student in America should read. If they study this short essay, they will grasp the essence of the Fed and understand why the financial Status Quo is doomed.
     The Fed's main goal is to increase the profits of the big banks. That goal is consistent with increased profits for all firms and prosperity in general, so long as the banks and the elites grab the largest share of the profits. 
     But, that goal is also served in the long run by boom-and-bust cycles that have a ratcheting effect of concentrating wealth in the hands of the wealthy. The clued-in super-wealthy can profit both as bulls and as bears, and can purchase prized assets cheaply at the bottom of the cycle (on easy credit from their friends at the Fed).
      It is a Clausewitzian principle that individuals, organizations and nations will expand their power until some superior or equal power effectively opposes them and stops them. Because the Fed's power has no equal, we can expect the Fed's power to continue to increase indefinitely.
      At some point, however, history shows that the slaves and victims of oppressors gain strength and confidence when they feel a desperate determination to live.
      But that point is still far off. The numbers of the righteous are far exceeded by those who want freshly printed debt-money from Ben Bernanke. Things have not yet reached the desperate, life-threatening stage which is when most revolutions occur. 
Read the article here. 



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