In a poll commissioned by Bloomberg, Americans were asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely.
Only 37% of people indicated it should be left as is. It is becoming more apparent to the general public that the monetary system we have now clearly is not working.
For a century, a private owned central bank has been in complete control of America’s currency and has been a dismal failure at it. The Federal Reserve has become far too powerful, even Congress, who created the Fed, is essentially helpless to the Fed’s enormous power. The Federal Reserve was initiated to guarantee that our financial system
Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost 96 percent of its purchasing power. In its current form, this institution is nothing more than a tool designed to create immense wealth for dominant mega-banks. Their tactic is to borrow huge amounts of money from the Federal Reserve--for next to nothing and then purchase U.S. government debt with it. The government then pays billions of dollars in interest to the holders of the national debt. Because the regional Federal
held in the hands of the affluent. As well, the Fed has become adroit at bailing mismanaged banks out of bankruptcy.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial catastrophe, the Fed orchestrated the salvation of Wall Street. How did they do this? Well, during a recent Joint Economic Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was directly accused of creating the 1.3 trillion dollars needed “out of thin air”. All Bernanke could do was nod his head. The Federal Reserve has long been attacked by many, including senators and congressman, over the methods it employs.
Most everyone agrees that the Federal Reserve acts in secrecy and that no one really knows if they are being upfront with the American people or not. It is noted that while supposedly independent, the Fed is quite possibly in cahoots with influential political bodies to manipulate politics or advance personal agendas. The Fed has been accused of exaggerating or outright falsifying information regarding the country's financial stability. The problem is, the Fed is unaccountable.
Ron Paul
Former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul tried for many years to get Congress to call for a comprehensive audit of the Fed for years. He argued that the economy was being adversely affected by a dollar that continued to be devalued, that the monetary policies being employed were causing wild swings in the economy and claiming the current policy of persisting in “quantitative easing” until the official unemployment rate reaches a targeted level was the wrong ploy.
fundamentally a price problem, not a monetary problem. Therefore, the cure for unemployment is a free market in wages, not any particular monetary policy. Milton Friedman, a renowned economist, had said that ideally he would "prefer to abolish the federal reserve system altogether" and replace it with a computer. Even from within the Fed origination it has been admitted that their tactics have failed.
Yet they did do it again. Even under the “omnipotent” Fed’s supervision, the destructive boom and bust cycles have continued. Three of them have been severe! Besides the Great Depression, the period of stagflation between 1974-82 and the “Great Recession”.
The result was what Friedman, the well-known economist, calls the "Great Contraction"—a period of falling income, prices, and employment caused by the choking effects of a restricted money supply. Other economists most recent criticism of The Fed was that the policies of credit expansion and low interest rates led directly to the economic downturn, unemployment, and housing crises of 2008-2009.
Former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, then-chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, remarked about the Fed's role in the present economic crisis, "We saw over the last number of years when they took on consumer protection responsibilities and the regulation of bank holding companies; it was an abysmal failure." Some believe that “the creator is now superior to the creation”, and that since the Fed was created by an act of Congress, it should be reformed or abolished by an act of Congress.
Even Thomas Jefferson argued that “Congress has no authority to create a bank and give it a monopoly over our money, makes a mockery of constitutional checks and balances. It poses a threat, not just to our currency and economic well-being, yet to liberty itself. It’s a tragedy that this institution has lasted as long as it has”.
Thomas Jefferson