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  • Posted by $ 8 years, 2 months ago
    Perhaps his real message was garbled by the media, but tweaking the Fed is not the same thing as "free enterprise." From this report, it appears that Sen. Marco Rubio speaks of "free enterprise" without actually integrating the concept into a wider political philosophy.

    Accept that the Federal Reserve is the largest private bank in America. Period. The "free market" solution would be to let them pick their own directors, rather than having that be a political decision. And let them fail, of course, if that happens.

    But in any case, the call for so-called "predictable changes in the interest rate" are really a desire for a centrally-controlled economy.

    It would only create other markets with other interest rates, as, indeed, is always the case.

    The "Audit the Fed" movement is one of those "moral panics" that brings attention to a problem without actually addressing it. And that can be fine, for those moral panics that have some merit.

    Spousal abuse is an example. It was denied as a crime, or even a wrong or a harm, for centuries. The movement against it blossomed all at once in 1971, in parallel in Chiswick UK and Ann Arbor, Michigan. It grew slowly through 1975, and then rapidly through 1984, by which time there was a moral crusade against “wife beating.” As social entrepreneurs, those moral activists identified and attracted resources. Today, action against domestic violence is a routine activity of police patrols. By law, the assaultive spouse (not necessarily the husband) is removed from the home and arrested.

    On the other hand, many other "moral panics" - missing children, stolen kidneys - spanned urban legend and flimflam.

    Where "Audit the Fed" fits in depends on what comes of it.

    A few years ago, I worked the LP booth at the Ann Arbor Street Fair. We shared a doublewide wide tent with Ron Paul's Audit the Fed campaign. They did well, people left and right signed the petitions. (Note the Bernie Sanders is also on board with this.) But one of my young libertarian comrades asserted, "... only Congress has the right to create money." He was referring the Enumerated Powers, of course.

    But, if that is true, then you do not have the right to create your own money. And why would that be?
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