Category: US Federal Reserve Bank
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Monday, February 17, 2014
At The Fed, The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen testified before Congress for the first time since replacing Ben Bernanke at the beginning of the month. Her testimony confirmed what many of us suspected, that interventionist Keynesian policies at the Federal Reserve are well-entrenched and far from over. Mrs. Yellen practically bent over backwards to reassure Wall Street that the Fed would continue its accommodative monetary policy well into any new economic recovery. The same monetary policy that got us into this mess will remain in place until the next crisis hits.
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Strength of Yellen's leadership crucial to success of Fed Taper / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
Janet Yellen delivered a flawless performance in her first Humphrey Hawkins testimony as US Federal Reserve Chairwoman, but that performance may mask a weak leadership and that could have grave consequences for the tapering of the Fed's bond purchases.
At stake is the 'smooth' winding down of the Fed's quantitative easing programme – the biggest and boldest monetary stimulus in history. Emerging market wobbles aside, the exit hasn't been nearly as disruptive as it could have been, though it is still in the early stages.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2014
No Honeymoon for Janet Yellen / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
On Janet Yellen’s first day on the job as Fed Chair, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 326 points; 10-year Treasury yields fell to a mere 2.58%. While a day does not set a trend, let alone create a legacy, there is no honeymoon for Janet Yellen. Volatility, seemingly absent in 2013, is back, with major implications for investors’ portfolios.
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Sunday, February 09, 2014
Who Owns The Federal Reserve? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
"Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders.”
– The Honorable Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee in the 1930s
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Wednesday, February 05, 2014
From the Bernanke Put to the Yellen Trap, Debt Rattle 2014 / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
Sifting through the debris after the initial wave of the year’s first major storm has subsided, there’s no escaping the realization that the damage is structural, this was no incident, and the next wave may well topple the whole structure. Its foundations have been impaired so thoroughly by many years of intentional neglect that the only sensible thing to do is to raze it, lay down new foundations, and erect a whole new edifice.
Ironically, it’s the utter contempt for the free market system as exhibited by the major players in what still poses as a capitalist society, that has done us in. Recklessly flooding the entire premises with ultra cheap liquidity is the one thing the building proved to have no resistance against. Turns out, if you don’t replace weak pieces with new and stronger ones, if you don’t throw out what has started rotting, you end up compromising the entire foundations.
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Tuesday, February 04, 2014
Ben Bernanke’s Legacy: A Weak and Mediocre U.S. Economy / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
John P. Cochran writes: As Chairman Bernanke’s reign at the Fed comes to an end, the Wall Street Journal provides its assessment of “The Bernanke Legacy.” Overall the Journal does a reasonable job on both Greenspan and Bernanke, especially compared to the “effusive praise from the usual suspects; supporters of monetary central planning. The Journal argues when accessing Bernanke’s performance it is appropriate to review Bernanke’s performance “before, during, and after the financial panic.”
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Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Ben Bernanke’s Monetary Mess / Economics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Most who have graded Prof. Ben Bernanke’s twelve years at the Federal Reserve have issued marks which range from A to a gentleman’s C. I think those marks are much too generous. Indeed, I think a failing mark would be more appropriate.
In the ramp up to Britain’s Northern Rock bank run in 2007 and the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy in September 2008, Bernanke and the Fed created a classic aggregate demand bubble: when final sales to domestic purchasers – a good proxy for aggregate demand – surge well above the trend rate of growth consistent with modest inflation. The Fed also facilitated the spawning of many market-specific bubbles in the housing, equity, and commodity markets. True to form, Fed officials have steadfastly denied any culpability for creating the bubbles that so spectacularly burst during the Panic of 2008-09.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
The Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Fed Comes Out Swinging / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
Shah Gilani writes: Last Tuesday, January 14, 2014, the Federal Reserve finally had enough.
After supposedly looking into big banks ownership of commodity-related infrastructure operations (like warehouses, oil barges, and utilities) for the last two years, which came on the heels of their 2003 review of the same issues, the rock ‘em sock ‘em Fed came out swinging.
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Friday, January 17, 2014
Happy 100th U.S. Fed Birthday / Stock-Markets / US Federal Reserve Bank
On December 23, the U.S. Federal Reserve celebrated its 100th birthday. When legislation creating its existence was signed on December 23, 1913 (in a sneaky move during a holiday week), Congress granted the Fed a monopoly on creating dollars backed by debt.
The ongoing QE program is an unprecedented use of that power. This chart of the Fed's stated capital of $55 billion compared to its total assets of $4 trillion shows the extent to which the Fed is the focal point of dollar creation and therefore credit creation.
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Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Federal Reserve Overstepped Bounds with Monetary Policy - Seems like a Bubble / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
Checks & Balances
If you think about it the President has checks and balances, the Supreme Court has checks and balances, and even the two houses of Congress have checks and balances. However as we have seen with the last 5 years of Fed policy that there is no actual checks and balances for what the Federal Reserve can and cannot do with regard to monetary policy, and there should be.
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Thursday, January 02, 2014
Behind the Fed’s Magical Curtain: The US Monetary Base and the Impact of Excess Reserves / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
Kim Collard writes: The Federal Reserves actions since the Global Financial Crisis have been watched and analysed more than at any other time in history. This makes pretty good sense, as its actions have obviously had a profound impact on these markets.
However, I believe all the many and varied analyses of these actions have fallen into a carefully laid perception trap.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
The Creature from Jekyll Island Fed Anniversary Exposé Benefits / Stock-Markets / US Federal Reserve Bank
“Secret negotiations established a banking cartel. It’s grown ever stronger through the years.” It operates “independently.”
“Rather than preventing financial crises, it precipitates new ones.”
“We know Fed policy continues to reap profits for Wall Street while impoverishing Main Street.”
“One hundred years is long enough. End the Fed.”
– Ron Paul
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Thursday, December 26, 2013
U.S. Federal Reserve Fuels Global “Financial Parasitism” / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Nick Beams writes: The decision by the US Federal Reserve Board to begin to “taper” its program of “quantitative easing” (QE)—the pumping of $1 trillion a year into the financial markets—was supposed to signal a return to more normal monetary policy.It turned out to be a commitment to continue the provision of ultra-cheap money to fuel the financial parasitism that has brought untold wealth to the corporate and financial elites, while creating ever-worsening social conditions for billions of people the world over.
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Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Why Bankers Created the Fed 100 Years Ago / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
The Democratic Party gained prominence in the first half of the nineteenth century as being the party that opposed the Second Bank of the United States. In the process, it tapped into an anti-state sentiment that proved so strong that we wouldn't see another like it until the next century.
Its adversaries were Whig politicians who defended the bank and its ability to grow the government and their own personal fortunes at the same time. They were, in fact, quite open about these arrangements. It was considered standard-operating procedure for Whig representatives to receive monetary compensation for their support of the Bank when leaving Congress. The Whig Daniel Webster even expected annual payments while in Congress. Once he complained to the Bank of the United States President Nicholas Biddle, “I believe my retainer has not been renewed or refreshed as usual. If it be wished that my relation to the Bank should be continued, it may be well to send me my usual retainer.”
Monday, December 23, 2013
U.S. Fed 100 Years Is Enough: Time to Make the Fed Bank a Public Utility / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
December 23rd, 2013, marks the 100th anniversary of the Federal Reserve, warranting a review of its performance. Has it achieved the purposes for which it was designed?
The answer depends on whose purposes we are talking about. For the banks, the Fed has served quite well. For the laboring masses whose populist movement prompted it, not much has changed in a century.
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013
How the Fed Steals from You... and Gives to the Very Rich / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Porter Stansberry writes: On December 23, just five days from now, we "celebrate" 100 years of a currency system controlled by a select few private corporations.
In 1913, a bill passed through a poorly attended Senate session... and was rushed to the White House, where Woodrow Wilson signed it into law that same night.
It established the Federal Reserve... which is not technically owned by the federal government, nor does it have any actual reserves.
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Federal Reserve Celebrates 100 Years of Failure / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Researching economic publications on the first century of the Federal Reserve System provides a wealth of financial information that attempts to explain the way the central bank works. Rarely will the academic studies and official reports address the raw nature of a money creation by a private banking monopoly. The common practice of disparaging sources outside government or corporatist business circles, attempts to avoid addressing, much less confronting the plutocracy that controls the debt created money system.
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Tuesday, December 17, 2013
The Great U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Experiment / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Miguel Perez-Santalla writes: After 100 years of the US central bank, does it deserve another try...?
SO IT WILL be 100 years on December 23rd since the Federal Reserve was born.
The purpose in 1913 was to form a regulatory body to help stem the tide of bank failures in the United States of America. The Fed's proponents, Senator Nelson Aldrich, Senator Owens, Congressman Glass and others, believed that if an agency controlled the flow of money and the banking institutions, it could prevent many of the economic collapses that plagued the early years of the US.
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Monday, December 16, 2013
U.S. Federal Reserve: 100 Years of Destroying the Purchase Power of Money? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Michael Lombardi writes:
Nearly 100 years ago, on December 23, 1913, the Federal Reserve was created. The central bank was created for many reasons, such as minimizing the impacts of panics, becoming a banker of last resort and “smoothing” economic cycles.
But along the way to keeping the monetary system stable, something happened: the value of money deteriorated.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
After 100 Years Of Failure, It's Time To End The Fed! / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
A week from now, the Federal Reserve System will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding. Resulting from secret negotiations between bankers and politicians at Jekyll Island, the Fed's creation established a banking cartel and a board of government overseers that has grown ever stronger through the years. One would think this anniversary would elicit some sort of public recognition of the Fed's growth from a quasi-agent of the Treasury Department intended to provide an elastic currency, to a de facto independent institution that has taken complete control of the economy through its central monetary planning. But just like the Fed's creation, its 100th anniversary may come and go with only a few passing mentions.
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