I agree the FED should be disbanded and the government should not be allowed to control our money. They suck at it.

If you still have an interest in economics, I highly recommend Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" ---the 4th edition in Spanish and English --- and the new 5th edition (I have not yet read) just came out.

It is a pity so few (even of us) have read such excellent books as Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" because he so clearly explains economic issues such as the fed, rent control, etc.

I wonder just how many of todays crop of youngsters have ever heard of AR. And then I wonder how many would read Atlas Shrugged if they have. I mean it's so big and no pictures.

And they do.

Many moons ago when I was a HAW K missile commander (1970), just the week before I was REFAD, about a thousand dollars of hibiscus plants and some palm trees were delivered to my battery. The troops were thrilled to be able to pickax holes in the coral to plant them.

Coincidentally they arrived about a month before the end of the fiscal year. Coinky dink? I don't think so. It was spend all the money in the budget so a case could be made that we need more for the coming year.

Peacefully eject all the Democrats and Republicans from the con-gress and make me emperor for 3 months. (grin)
Obviously, I can't think of a peaceful way.

Outside the box thinking ;^)

I really doubt it. The only thing unusual about the Fed, compared to central banks of other nations, is that the Fed is privately owned. If it were abolished (and that will be hard to do, even after an unfavorable audit report) it will just be replaced by a government central bank. I don't see this as progress.

FFA, if you see a way for the audit to lead to broad reform, please tell us how!

Fiat money has never had any value beyond the threat implicit in government's demand that we all accept it.

The Crown did the best they could up to the point where the British voters decided it wasn't worth it any more, and Parliament refused to send any more regular troops to America. After that all they sent were mercenaries, whose hearts weren't in it, so to speak.

The Founders were very lucky to be able to win a war that they started against an empire that had them massively outgunned. I can only think of one other time this has happened in history, and that was North Vietnam's victory against us.

Perhaps we should study the successful Soviet propaganda effort from that time (which included major funding for the peace movement in the US) so that we can duplicate it if the time comes again.

The Fed has nothing to fear no matter what it's been up to. Its head is an Obama appointee. At most, she'll lose her job and start collecting her generous pension.

What I want to know is, who is pulling the Fed's strings? Its board members seem fanatical about propping up the country's (insolvent) largest banks, but who else? An audit bill should demand these answers. Then we can consider leaning on some of those people -- if we don't think the Fed's alleged "independence" has any value. I wonder about that.

The difference is that most of Jefferson's statements relate to justification for committing an act of treason, because that is what declaring intent to overthrow a sitting government is. The Founders were very aware they were conducting unlawful acts against the Crown. What people tend to forget is that the Revolution was the end result of numerous attempts to achieve sufferance by legal means before accepting the fact that only the criminal act of treason remained.

It is still permissible to restate why we feel a government that has violated the trust of its citizens should be removed. If all legal avenues fail, then we have acknowledge we will be committing an act of treason to state intent to overthrow the government by other means.

Since we have not exhausted all legal means to correct the course of our government, it's premature to state we need violent overthrow. Once we reach that point, we should expect the government to pursue every means to stop such a movement, as did the Crown against our Founders.

For some reason, it's acceptable for Jefferson to say that bad government should be overthrown, but it isn't acceptable for the people today.
We are supposed to be afraid to say such things. Afraid that the government has the power to arrest us to control freedom of speech, and freedom of thought.

I am not as old as Ron Paul, but I also have a lifelong anger at what the Fed is and has done. I remember as a 9 year old boy having this sinking feeling that something is very wrong when they removed silver from our money. I proceeded to make an initial investment in a roll of dimes and a roll of quarters and repeatedly would remove the silver, replace it with the new crap, and exchange it for another one at the bank. I still have all that silver! And around the same time they put a final deadline on turning in bonafide silver certificates for actual silver. I remember my "baby dollar" (Ha! remember those?) was a 1934 Silver Certificate (I'm not that old, it just that they were still around in the 50's) and my Mom wouldn't let me cash it in for silver before the deadline.

And then only a couple of years later, I read The Unknown Ideals of Capitalism containing Greenspan's infamous essay on gold and proceeded to watch him betray all of that knowledge. WTF?

And then Tricky Dick and the string pullers behind him cut the last umbilical cord of gold while I was in High School. And then Edward Griffins book on the Fed became available in the 90's which lifted the veils of wtf from the whole picture.

In short, I share Ron Paul's attitude about all this, because I have already had a lifetime of this treasonous shit!

Nevada gold miner I am.

Here is how the Ivory Towerers argue on the legit point: Laugh at you, you are crazy. I attempted to study economics in college but finally gave up when the bullshit became too obvious for me and I was starting to be ostracized in the business school building. Thankfully I had my other major to console my disappointment.

As usual, we only need look to the Founders for warnings about the dangers of such institutions:

Thomas Jefferson said, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currencies, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their prosperity until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

The Fed so obviously does not want the truth revealed. The global monetary system operates on hiding troubling aspects that may cause the lay people to question the currency and hence benefit insiders close to front line money. Bernanke stated gold is not money so why hide it or even have it? You cannot hide something forever. The truth will be revealed.

I'm almost afraid to find out what the Fed is hiding.
We The People do deserve the truth for a real for really real big time change.
Constitutionally speaking, We The People should be put back in charge. Need to be . . .

If there was no politically controlled central bank, the Federal Government would be unable to print fiat money to pay for all that they do. To pay for their programs, they would have to pay with tax revenue and borrowing exclusively from outside parties that would demand prompt repayment. If they acted like they have for the past several decades, creditors would drag the government into court and cause them to liquidate their assets to pay them off. QE is blatant currency devaluation, bailouts are cronyism on steroids. I am sure that these evil thieves would find some new ways to bilk the public but the Fed gives them perfect cover.

"The Americans who even know...." reading
that statement is so painful only because it's
so true!