100 Years of Government Theft

100 Years of Government Theft

by Jason Scheurer 23 Dec 2013, 1:01 PM PDT

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/12/23/100-Years-of-Government-Theft

The United States gave birth to an abomination on December 23, 1913. It was conceived by a group of men right out of Rosemary’s Baby and consummated in a secret gathering place known as Jekyll Island. Some of the richest and most powerful men in America would go on to be its Godfathers. They nurtured this demon spawn and played wet nurse as it was sold to the public as the new panacea that would free us from the evils of the business cycle. The abomination they created is none other than the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve is not your friend. The Federal Reserve believes it operates above the law[1], and if looked at with an objective eye, it functions much like a type of banking cartel our founding fathers feared could threaten the concept of a limited government. They were right. The Fed is at the very heart of our financial problems, and until the vast majority of the public becomes aware of this, they will not subside.

The Founding Fathers were very specific about what they wanted when they wrote the Constitution. According to Article I, Section 8, Congress is supposed to have the authority to "coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.” The government was never supposed to be in the banking business; they were to be in the sound currency business. The problem with this is that a sound currency does not need a bank. And because a sound currency does not lose its purchasing power over time, modern banking is its foe.

The Fed was designed "to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Over the years, its role in banking and the economy has expanded."[2] Since 1950, the U.S. has had 10 different recessions, about one every seven years--viewed as a normal business cycle. The Fed oversaw the Great Depression, the “internet bubble,” the “housing bubble,” and now possibly the largest bubble of them all, a “bond” bubble. Additionally, the dollar has lost 95.75% of its purchasing power under its management.[3] How’s that for fulfilling its mission?

The Fed is operated “much like a private corporation”[4] that does not function for a profit and is steered by unelected and unaccountable central planners. Although there may not be direct compensation at the heart of the arrangement, it is an organization run by banks, for banks. If our system was so endangered by the “too big to fail” giants back in 2008, then how has the Fed allowed them to grow even larger? It seems the 47,000 pages of regulation weren’t enough to prevent what amounts to structural fraud.[5] In just the last five years, the six largest banks have grown in asset size by 37% and now control 67% of the pie.[6] We, as a nation, have created an economy based on debt under the Fed--a debt that unfortunately continues to grow.

Some of the most recent moves by the Fed should give every American pause as to what fiscal insanity has been occurring. This includes:

“Creating” 2.75 trillion dollars over the last five years and injecting $85 billion of it per month into the debt market to manipulate interest rates lower.[7] This works out to over $250 per person per month, or roughly that of an average car payment;

Conducting secret bailouts to the tune of 16.1 trillion dollars with the following recipients:[8]

Citigroup - $2.513 trillion

Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion

Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion

Bank of America - $1.344 trillion

Bear Sterns - $853 billion

Goldman Sachs - $814 billion

JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion

UBS - $287 billion

Credit Suisse - $262 billion

Lehman Brothers - $183 billion

Wells Fargo - $159 billion

Wachovia - $142 billion

(This list doesn’t even reflect the foreign banks’ 3.08 trillion);

Giving the banks secret loans, but also paying them $659.4 million in fees to administer those same loans; and

Enriching the already-wealthy with these policies so that 95% of the income gains over the last five years has gone to the top 1%, while median household income continues to fall.[9]

Inflation was never really a long-term problem in the U.S. until the creation of the Fed--with a previous annual rate of about a half a percent in the preceding 100 years. Since its formation, the average annual rate of inflation has been about 3.5%. With the Fed’s dual mandate, including the lowering of unemployment, their solutions have left us with more unemployed than the population of Greece (U-6 20.3 million) and more Americans on Food Stamps than the population of Spain (47.2 million).[10] I don’t think the Fed would earn a passing grade, by any stretch of the imagination.

For the last 100 years the U.S. has drifted further and further into a debt-driven economy that is structurally flawed. The constant need to increase the debt load, in and of itself, can’t last without eventually undermining the currency and endangering the entire monetary and financial system. The Fed’s actions have shown that it has NOT prevented the business cycle, and its efforts to correct the economy’s problems (based on Keynesian economic theory) has only led to a world where the economy experiences bubble after bubble, blown larger by the Fed’s own actions. Sound finance? I think not.

The real problem is not the mundane functions of organizing the nation’s payment system, the regulatory oversight, or even the “protecting of the credit rights of consumers.” The problem resides in the false belief that an economy can be managed and that the prime beneficiaries of its actions work against the public at large, enriching the well-connected and wealthy, be they individuals or corporations.

The other day there was a televised ceremony celebrating the Fed’s 100-year anniversary. There were smiles all around as the masters of the universe praised each other and basked in their brilliance at managing the economy during their tenure. The one thing the room lacked was honesty, and with that, practical solutions to future problems. Since they failed to do this, I will briefly outline some simple free market solutions to return sanity to our financial system:

The U.S. banking system will no longer provide any FDIC coverage for any bank that, after 2018, is still involved in derivative activity. FDIC coverage will be lowered back down to a limit of only 100k;

As of the first of the year all banks are to post in their literature, and on every door next to the existing FDIC signs, the amount of derivative exposure they have as of that current quarter;

The Federal Reserve will exit the “managing the economy” business and function only as a service provider for overseeing the mundane functions of banking until it can be returned to its rightful place under the Department of the Treasury; and

The free market will set the price of all interest rates, free from government intervention of any kind.

Each of these solutions will reduce the exposure of the American taxpayer to a minimum, while keeping the integrity of the existing system’s settlement mechanisms in place. The heightened transparency, as well as reduction in meddling, will allow the return of a non-manipulated world where borrowers and savers can reach mutually beneficial arrangements. Most importantly, it will break the back of the government’s systematic theft of the public with its continued debasement of the currency, while starving it of the ability to finance the expanding authoritarian state. In short, these solutions will END THE FED as we know it.

Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is a bank in the Federal Reserve System.

Note: Gregory Q. Brown is a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2013/12/commercial-club-of-chicago-members.html

Charles L. Evans is the president & CEO for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

William C. Foote is a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Terry Mazany is a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Frederick H. Waddell is a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Anthony K. Anderson was a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

John A. Canning Jr. was the chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Silas Keehn was the president for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Michael H. Moskow was the president & CEO for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Thomas J. Wilson was a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Valerie B. Jarrett was a board member for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration.

Barack Obama is the president of the Barack Obama administration, and was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.

Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

R. Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, was the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration, and a director at the Boeing Company.

W. James McNerney Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the chairman & president & CEO for the Boeing Company.

Barbara G. Fast was a VP at the Boeing Company, and a VP for the CGI Group Inc.

CGI Group Inc. was the Obamacare contractor that developed Healthcare.gov web site.

Obamacare is Barack Obama’s signature policy initiative.

Donna S. Morea was the EVP for the CGI Group Inc., and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, the Brookings Institution (think tank), the International Rescue Committee, the Harlem Children's Zone, the Robin Hood Foundation, the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

George Soros is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone.

Carl T. Camden is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and a director, Detroit branch for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Jeffrey A. Joerres is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

James E. Rohr is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, a member of the Federal Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board, and was a director – Cleveland for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Lee C. Bollinger is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and was the chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

William J. McDonough is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and was the president & CEO for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Peter G. Peterson is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and was the chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

John E. Sexton is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, was the chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the chair Council of Chairs for the Federal Reserve System.

Roger W. Ferguson Jr. is a co-chairman for the Committee for Economic Development, and was the vice chairman for the Federal Reserve Board.

Barbara B. Grogan is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and was the chair - Denver branch for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Donald L. Kohn is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), was the vice chairman for the Federal Reserve Board, and a member of the Federal Open Market Committee.

Alice M. Rivlin is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was the vice chair for the Federal Reserve Board.

Richard C. Blum is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), married to Senator Dianne Feinstein, and an Economic Advisory Council member for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Louis W. Cabot is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Susan M. Collins is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a director, Detroit branch for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Glenn H. Hutchins is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

John C. Whitehead is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and was the chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Indra K. Nooyi is an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and was a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Timothy F. Geithner was an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, the treasury secretary for the Barack Obama administration, and the president for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Maurice R. Greenberg is an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, the chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone.

Richard S. Fuld Jr. was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a director at the Robin Hood Foundation.

Jeffrey R. Immelt is a director at the Robin Hood Foundation, and was a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Stephen Friedman was the chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Paul A. Volcker was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the chairman for the Federal Reserve System, and the president for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Richard A. Debs was the COO for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and the Center for American Progress.

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and was a supporter for the Center for American Progress.

Herbert M. Allison Jr. was a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), the assistant Treasury secretary for the Barack Obama administration, and an advisory committee member for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Daniel K. Tarullo was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, and a member of the Federal Reserve Board.