Can He Do That?!

Gary Johnson is speaking at the University of Wyoming. He mentioned that if he becomes president, he will take down the federal reserve . ..Now, I know that Andrew Jackson annihilated the Second Bank, but, my question is, can a president - nowadays - shut the federal reserve down, considering how much power the reserve has? :crowngrin:

 

The question really is, should he? Whether or not it is "evil," if the Fed is shut down, it will have devastating economic consequences.

 

You're right. I can't even imagine a different central bank for the u.s. Or the u.s. without one, for that matter. I really don't know why he would do that. I'm guessing he thinks that will reduce the debt we're in.

 

It's a symbolic action. Defeating the system and whatnot. Personally I'm not into that. About to fall alseep sorr.

 

No president has the power to shut down the Federal Reserve, and anyone that says they do is an idiot. We know what happened to JFK when he tried to do something similar. Gary Johnson is either a disingenuous liar and charlatan, or simply a well-meaning dupe who doesn't understand the power structure.

And there are plenty of reasons why the Federal Reserve should be abolished. It is a private entity that is NOT part of the government and exists outside of the oversight of Congress. The Federal Reserve prints our money out of nothing, charges interest on this money which is worth nothing more than the paper it's printed on, and uses the power they have to indebt entire nations and cause extreme economic turmoil that ends up affecting everyone.

Most people talk about the US being in debt, when they don't even know who we're in debt to. We're in debt to the private central bankers behind the Federal Reserve SCAM. This talk about being indebted to China is partly true, though mostly a convenient diversion.

 

I can tell you haven't really studied the subject much at all. You actually have it backwards. We have already suffered "devastating economic consequences" because of the Federal Reserve. The reason this country is in the mess it's in is because of the Federal Reserve.

 

If you watch the first zeitght movie , it explains the federal reserve . The movie is in 3 parts , religion , money , and 911 . I dont completly agree with it , but it is interesting to watch . https://www.youtube.com/results?sea...72.2923.2-6j0j3.9.0...0.0...1ac.1.fxa3ElOXRiY . No president is going to shut down the fed. with out major problems . desert rat

 

I don't go by Youtube movies. I've studied and taken real courses on government and economics. There are lots of resources on why we need currency regulation and why something like a gold standard doesn't work in a 21st-century economy so I'm not going to bother explaining it.

 

How does your stating a need for currency regulation answer or address anything in Pressed Rat's post?

 

That's what the Fed does. Regulates currency. If you don't have the Fed, how do you keep the economy under control?

 

There is no way to control an economy that is based solely on debt... Just sayin'

 

What entity controls the Fed?

 

:dupe:

 

Doesn't the Federal Reserve control itself? I mean, they're not restricted by the government. Or was that just a rhetorical question?

 

That the the Fed is not restricted by government rule would include the office of president. So the president can't take down the Fed.

 

So how is the Fed keeping the economy under control exactly?

 

Setting interest rates is one way, they also set the quantity of printed money in circulation.

 

Don't forget we got along fine without them our first century and a half or so.

 

I understand that. But how has that helped the economy when we are in such massive debt and the currency is worth increasingly less and less? Inflation is related directly to the Fed's manipulation of the currency, which makes it harder for people to get by and make ends meet because their money is worth less and less.

 

It's more complicated than that. The Fed can set interest rates and print money, yes, but it can't do a lot of things that control the economy. It can't levy taxes, it can't hire people, it can't give away money. Those things are done by the government and private companies. It is not true that the Fed isn't restricted by the government. Let me just give you this from Wikipedia:

The Fed is not an all-powerful entity. It can't magically fix the economy any more than Ron Paul can get elected president. To have a strong functioning economy, you rely on many different functions.

Saying that we got along for our first hundred years without it is also misleading. For our first hundred years, we didn't have roads or schools or any of the things that we have now. We also would have frequent economic catastrophes, called "panics," that would go up and down in a predictable fashion. When the Depression hit, we had a panic that wouldn't lift. That depression was due to a lot of things, but a big factor was deflation, that is, that a dollar became more valuable than it should be.

See, when new inventions are made, the amount of physical wealth in the world is increased. For example, the invention of the automobile. A horse cost $500 before the car (an arbitrary number, not relevant to the point). Then the car is invented, which is many times more valuable. Does the value of the horse (in addition to everything else in the economy) go down? In a fixed-standard economic system such as one based on gold, it would have to. This causes the value of everyday items to go down, until eventually they become unprofitable to make. A system like the Fed keeps this from happening, because it keeps the prices of cheap things at a stable rate while accounting for the rising value of the overall economy.

The Fed reduces debt, because it makes a profit, and puts 90+% of that profit into the US Treasury. They can't fix everything, but that doesn't make them evil. What causes banking problems is when the government allows banks to do whatever they want and they start stepping on the people.