Who needs the federal reserve?

Discussion in 'Economics' started by RainMaker3000, Jun 25, 2019.

  1. OK I watched it and I didn't have the same reaction. It all makes sense, what is off the rails?
     
    #51     Jul 1, 2019
  2. tommcginnis

    tommcginnis

    A troll question, but I'll respond anyway, for the entertainment of others:
    Why would anyone ever go into debt?
    Why buy a car?
    Why buy an education?
    Why borrow to attain cred for an electric or plumbing apprentice?
    Why invest in new rail lines, switch yards, tender engines, fuel facilities, repair houses, for your steel mill?
    Why take your 100% equity company to 40% equity/60% bonds?

    These are the very same reasons that ANY ENTITY entertains debt: the work to which the funds will be put *outpays* the price of the debt.

    Just not that hard of a concept.
     
    #52     Jul 1, 2019
  3. Right, but these are voluntary. The point of the video is that you are indebted involuntarily, i.e., man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
     
    #53     Jul 1, 2019
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  4. tommcginnis

    tommcginnis

    [The quote goes something like...] "What is actually giving this New Money value? It *steals* money from the money that already exists."

    WRONGGGG. That only works in a Ron Paul/(Fixed) Gold Standard world, where a dollar in circulation is matched up one-for-one to a dollar of gold in Ft. Knox. We operate in a Better Piggy Bank world where, no matter how much value you have on Reserve, it is the shape of your Piggy Bank that lends credence to the value of your currency. Ye ol' fiat money -- it's is de-coupled from a dollar-to-dollar representation.

    Let's say you had $100, and wanted to keep it safe. You have two neighbors who both have *actual* safes in their home! Wonderful! And both have offered costless space in their safe for your $100. Wonderful again! But there are differences. While the safe is exactly the same, Mr Brown has an unkept lawn and a dilapidated house, a jalopy for a car, and a family life that might kindly be described as "noisy." Mr. Green's yard is picturesque, as is his house. His car is sensible, mechanically sound, and gets a home wash on regular occasion. And his family life is, "family" grade. So, who do you give your $100 for safe-keeping? You go to the Better Piggy Bank. So, the U.S. operates what the world sees as the best piggy bank.

    "But inflation!" Inflation happens with grotesque dilution, for sure: people lose faith in their fiat money. But that is a result of dilution, not of economic processes. *Economic* inflation happens when "Too many dollars chase too few things to purchase." This is what drives Adam Smith's Invisible Hand -- this is the soul of Price Discovery & The Efficient Markets (a rock&roll band I would LOVE to see). At any event, inflation in 2019 is being used as a gauge for both the dollar's desirability and for that slight edge that comes from the economy being just a touch hotter than absolute equilibrium. It's thus a proxy for nice things, sure -- but to argue Inflation Is Necessary[!] is like arguing that because I'm hungry, therefore I worked hard ---- "Nah!" Sketchy logic for another day...
     
    #54     Jul 1, 2019
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  5. You might have been triggered by the clip of Ron Paul which was not very ... shall we say ... unbiased. The rest of the video does say what you said. Or at least that is my interpretation from both sides.
     
    #55     Jul 1, 2019
  6. tommcginnis

    tommcginnis

    We live in a democratic Republic, under a Social Contract. We have borne the Leviathan with our votes, we nourish it with our taxes. "We have met the Enemy, and they is us." We can leave at any time. :cool:
     
    #56     Jul 1, 2019
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  7. That's the "move to North Korea" argument I generally get from liberals. You are indebted from birth (to whom? each other?) If this is the state of being you prefer for your children, then sure I can't argue with you. But we are not free.
     
    #57     Jul 1, 2019
  8. tommcginnis

    tommcginnis

    I might wish to go naked, were it not for the damn sun. But the sun exists, and does a lot more for me than just produce boils and weeping soreness. So, yeah -- I'll clothe up. But that doesn't make me a victim.
     
    #58     Jul 1, 2019
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  9. Yet, you do wear sunscreen. I'm not saying that there aren't positive aspects to the system. But I teach my kids to get out of fiat as soon as possible.
     
    #59     Jul 1, 2019
  10. Totally irrelevant to the discussion though.

    (1) "democratic Republic" - what's the difference between that thing and a Republic? And is America today still a "Republic" as founded some 200 years ago??

    (2) "Social Contract" - what is that?

    (3) "we nourish it with our taxes." - "it" refers to??

    (4) "We can leave at any time." - how do you "leave" exactly? and from what?

    Figurative speech & gimmicks of fictional literature may have an emotional propaganda appeal to the masses in political campaigns, but serve no useful purposes in a discussion about the Federal Reserve.

    Bizarre (and fallacious) reasoning that defies common sense, let alone logic. When a central bank (any central bank) prints a massive amount of money (strictly speaking, currency) without any supporting economic growth, it's inflation. The newly created amount dilutes the value of existing currency as a matter of mathematics, though the actual effect on the masses may take time to develop.

    Sarcasm?? :D:D

    Financial data of the U.S. government is NOT the same as that of the Federal Reserve (a private corporation).

    No need to waste time on a single link there. You are not going to find "the Secrets of the Federal Reserve" and besides, it's totally irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

    Just read Eustace Mullins.
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2019
    #60     Jul 1, 2019
    tom2 likes this.