I don't give a shit about Canada. It's a different country with barbaric laws, where people bash baby seals in the head with clubs for their white fur.
Take the bet. Or quit acting like a 5 year old know it all prick. I just got my U.S. citisenship 7 years ago. The fact remains that the central banking system in the U.S. is almost the same as all systems, and if you actually believe there is some conspiracy out there to get you, perhaps you should check yourself into a mental institution. I will continue to try to tell people besides you how central banking works, but you seem to prefer to come out for the sole intents and purposes of trolling and denigrate me for no reason. Maybe Greenspan actually did put a chip inside your brain......
It's doesn't matter if you know who you say you know because it's not RELEVANT to the subject matter in the OP. It's a different country, the info is third hand and dates from the 70's, you know, when Jimmy Carter was POTUS, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and the Japanese were masters of the economic world?
You are not worth my time, i will not post anymore on this thread, sorry to the OP, i offered incredibly relevant information, and you (retief)decided to be a total prick...... this seems to be the standard for ET these days......
You have no idea what you are talking about. Every single dollar printed comes with interest attached to it payable to FED. To make matters even worse, instead of just perpetual debt and loss of currency value. These bankers dictate wars.
Here is a start to the concept of "central banking" which applies to all nations, a concept, which "retief" goosen doesnt seem to understand History In Europe prior to the 17th century most money was commodity money, typically gold or silver. However, promises to pay were widely circulated and accepted as value at least five hundred years earlier in both Europe and Asia. The medieval European Knights Templar ran probably the best known early prototype of a central banking system, as their promises to pay were widely regarded, and many regard their activities as having laid the basis for the modern banking system. As the first public bank to "offer accounts not directly convertible to coin", the Bank of Amsterdam established in 1609 is considered to be a precursor to a central bank.[3]. In 1664, the central bank of Swedenâ"Sveriges Riksbank" or simply "Riksbanken"âwas founded in Stockholm and is by that the world's oldest central bank (still operating today)[4]. This was followed in 1694 by the Bank of England, created by Scottish businessman William Paterson in the City of London at the request of the English government to help pay for a war. Although central banks today are generally associated with fiat money, the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries central banks in most of Europe and Japan developed under the international gold standard, elsewhere free banking or currency boards were more usual at this time. Problems with collapses of banks during downturns, however, was leading to wider support for central banks in those nations which did not as yet possess them, most notably in Australia. With the collapse of the gold standard after World War I, central banks became much more widespread. The US Federal Reserve was created by the U.S. Congress through the passing of the Glass-Owen Bill, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913, whilst Australia established its first central bank in 1920, Colombia in 1923, Mexico and Chile in 1925 and Canada and New Zealand in the aftermath of the Great Depression in 1934. By 1935, the only significant independent nation that did not possess a central bank was Brazil, which developed a precursor thereto in 1945 and created its present central bank twenty years later. When African and Asian countries gained independence, all of them rapidly established central banks or monetary unions. The People's Bank of China evolved its role as a central bank starting in about 1979 with the introduction of market reforms in that country, and this accelerated in 1989 when the country took a generally capitalist approach to developing at least its export economy. By 2000 the People's Bank of China was in all senses a modern central bank, and emerged as such partly in response to the European Central Bank. This is the most modern bank model and was introduced with the euro to coordinate the European national banks, which continue to separately manage their respective economies other than currency exchange and base interest rates. [edit] Activities and responsibilities Functions of a central bank (not all functions are carried out by all banks): implementing monetary policy determining Interest rates controlling the nation's entire money supply the Government's banker and the bankers' bank ("lender of last resort") managing the country's foreign exchange and gold reserves and the Government's stock register regulating and supervising the banking industry setting the official interest rate â used to manage both inflation and the country's exchange rate â and ensuring that this rate takes effect via a variety of policy mechanisms [edit] Monetary policy The Bank of England, central bank of the United Kingdom The ECB building in Frankfurt The Bank of CanadaCentral banks implement a country's chosen monetary policy. At the most basic level, this involves establishing what form of currency the country may have, whether a fiat currency, gold-backed currency (disallowed for countries with membership of the IMF), currency board or a currency union. When a country has its own national currency, this involves the issue of some form of standardized currency, which is essentially a form of promissory note: a promise to exchange the note for "money" under certain circumstances. Historically, this was often a promise to exchange the money for precious metals in some fixed amount. Now, when many currencies are fiat money, the "promise to pay" consists of nothing more than a promise to pay the same sum in the same currency. In many countries, the central bank may use another country's currency either directly (in a currency union), or indirectly, by using a currency board. In the latter case, local currency is directly backed by the central bank's holdings of a foreign currency in a fixed-ratio; this mechanism is used, notably, in Bulgaria, Hong Kong and Estonia. In countries with fiat money, monetary policy may be used as a shorthand form for the interest rate targets and other active measures undertaken by the monetary authority. [edit] Goals of monetary policy Price Stability Unanticipated inflation leads to lender losses. Nominal contracts attempt to account for inflation. Effort successful if monetary policy able to maintain steady rate of inflation. High Employment The movement of workers between jobs is referred to as frictional unemployment. All unemployment beyond frictional unemployment is classified as unintended unemployment. Reduction in this area is the target of macroeconomic policy. Economic Growth Economic growth is enhanced by investment in technological advances in production. Encouragement of savings supplies funds that can be drawn upon for investment. Interest Rate Stability Volatile interest and exchange rates generate costs to lenders and borrowers. Unexpected changes that cause damage, making policy formulation difficult. Financial Market Stability Foreign Exchange Market Stability Conflicts Among Goals
Goals frequently cannot be separated from each other and often conflict. Costs must therefore be carefully weighed before policy implementation. To make conflict productive, to turn it into an opportunity for change and progress, Follett advises against domination, manipulation, or compromise. "Just so far as people think that the basis of working together is compromise or concession, just so far they do not understand the first principles of working together. Such people think that when they have reached an appreciation of the necessity of compromise they have reached a high plane of social development . . . But compromise is still on the same plane as fighting. War will continue - between capital and labour, between nation and nation - until we reliquich the ideas of compromise and concession." [edit] Currency issuance United States Federal ReserveMany central banks are "banks" in the sense that they hold assets (foreign exchange, gold, and other financial assets) and liabilities. A central bank's primary liabilities are the currency outstanding, and these liabilities are backed by the assets the bank owns. Central banks generally earn money by issuing currency notes and "selling" them to the public for interest-bearing assets, such as government bonds. Since currency usually pays no interest, the difference in interest generates income, called seigniorage. In most central banking systems, this income is remitted to the government. The European Central Bank remits its interest income to its owners, the central banks of the member countries of the European Union. Although central banks generally hold government debt, in some countries the outstanding amount of government debt is smaller than the amount the central bank may wish to hold. In many countries, central banks may hold significant amounts of foreign currency assets, rather than assets in their own national currency, particularly when the national currency is fixed to other currencies. [edit] Naming of central banks The People's Bank of China, central bank of People's Republic of ChinaThere is no standard terminology for the name of a central bank, but many countries use the "Bank of Country" form (e.g., Bank of England, Bank of Canada, Bank of Russia). Some are styled "national" banks, such as the National Bank of Ukraine; but the term "national bank" is more often used by privately-owned commercial banks, especially in the United States. In other cases, central banks may incorporate the word "Central" (e.g. European Central Bank, Central Bank of Ireland). The word "Reserve" is also often included, such as the Reserve Bank of India, Reserve Bank of Australia, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the South African Reserve Bank, and U.S. Federal Reserve System. Many countries have state-owned banks or other quasi-government entities that have entirely separate functions, such as financing imports and exports. In some countries, particularly in some Communist countries, the term national bank may be used to indicate both the monetary authority and the leading banking entity, such as the USSR's Gosbank (state bank). In other countries, the term national bank may be used to indicate that the central bank's goals are broader than monetary stability, such as full employment, industrial development, or other goals. [edit] Interest rate interventions Reserve Bank of India Headquarter in MumbaiTypically a central bank controls certain types of short-term interest rates. These influence the stock- and bond markets as well as mortgage and other interest rates. The European Central Bank for example announces its interest rate at the meeting of its Governing Council; in the case of the Federal Reserve, the Board of Governors. Both the Federal Reserve and the ECB are composed of one or more central bodies that are responsible for the main decisions about interest rates and the size and type of open market operations, and several branches to execute its policies. In the case of the Fed, they are the local Federal Reserve Banks; for the ECB they are the national central banks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_bank
Central bankers from every country serve the same purpose, and it is to serve the people of the country which they belong to. There is absolutely no conspiracy, that was the only thing i tried to point out in this thread, and the reason i was going to add extra information was because so many people like retief goosen are terribly misinformed.
The obvious problem is they always get entangled with the upper classes who have no fear of making bad investment decisions because they know their back is covered and this by itself creates a wide range of imbalances in economic and social society. It shouldnt be up to a room of unelected old men to decide if company X or shareholders Y get saved because even if you believe in their good intentions as the saying goes: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Given the structure of current Western democracies, there's going to be a room full of old men that will be making these decisions, no matter how you slice it. Whether these people are elected or not is largely irrelevant, IMHO, given that we're not really that good at electing intelligent, upstanding and moral characters to office. So this argument, to me, is really neither here, nor there. In fact, on balance, I would much prefer the less politicized, more technocratic CB making these decisions, rather than a bunch of politicians, who we know are susceptible to all sorts of nefarious influences. My 2c...