The answers to most of your questions can be found at FederalReserve.gov.This is a marvelous website with all kinds of detailed information. Currently there is a link to Governor Powell's recent speech on the "Audit the Fed" movement. I can highly recommend that to you!


The answers to most of your questions can be found at FederalReserve.gov.This is a marvelous website with all kinds of detailed information. Currently there is a link to Governor Powell's recent speech on the "Audit the Fed" movement. I can highly recommend that to you!
It is worthwhile to become acquainted with the Federal Reserve System if for no other reason than all of the misinformation found on you tube and many other websites. It seems there are a lot of lunatics running around, and one of their favorite subjects when they are dreaming up their latest conspiracy theory is the Federal Reserve. I must confess, I've found some of these stories to be quite entertaining..
It is well to know the circumstances under which the U.S. was forced to stop redeeming dollars for gold at 35$/Oz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock
It became untenable for the Treasury to maintain it's 35$/Oz. dollar peg because the U.S. lost control of the price of gold. The treasury was redeeming at 35$ while elsewhere gold was selling at the equivalent of over 40$/Oz. Keynes had foreseen that at some point this would happen and warned Bretton Woods participants that the 35$ peg could not be maintained indefinitely. But his protestations had little affect on Harry Dexter White, the U.S. representative.
It wasn't just France. This had nothing to do with not controlling spending.I've read that the reason the value of gold at 35 dollars couldn't be held is that the US under Nixon defaulted on paying France the gold they owed them when it was requested. Is that incorrect? The government couldn't control their spending - something not unique in history.
You did not directly answer any of my posted points and refer me to the Federal reserve website. If I said a certain investment was a ponzi scheme, would you refer me to their website for a lovely article on why they are misunderstood and being persecuted?
It wasn't just France. This had nothing to do with not controlling spending.
Keynes, at Bretton Woods, immediately forsesaw the flaws in an exchange system based on a dollar pegged to gold at 35/oz. and pointed out the reasons why the system of exchange would be unsustainable. He was overruled.
The problems Keynes foresaw began to surface within 15 years of the Bretton Woods Conference (1944) but the U.S. soldiered on until it became completely untenable to maintain gold at 35/oz. The U.S. was still redeeming at 35/oz well after gold was trading elsewhere at over $40.
I am not inclined to repeat the history that is already available and very well done. If you want correct information, I can recommend you look for Wikipedia articles on Bretton Woods, Triffin dilemma, and the Nixon Shock. That will get you a long ways.
Suffice it to say that basing exchange rates on a single currency pegged to gold, with a promise to maintain the price of gold constant, was lunacy in 1944, though it worked for a while, and it is still lunacy today. The floating fiat currency system that we have today makes more sense in a global economy.
I'll merely comment that the U.S. dollar being the reserve currency committed the country to more or less permanent imbalances in its balance of trade and current account. (see Triffin dilemma). This is a necessary condition of the U.S. maintaining its currency as the reserve currency; a status which had, and continues to have, compensating benefits for the U.S.History is written by the victors and so one must read many sources before a clear picture arises IMO.
In a world that trades internationally, the balance of trade is equivalent of overspending. They must square eventually and someone must pay off debts eventually. The flaw is that no human can be trusted to issue money. That was true in Roman days and is true today. I suspect we are in the throws of a base currency change now. The new one may be a basket of currencies, but the same problem will occur eventually. Free markets are one solution,but they are long gone.
First a country has a net production of resources, then eventually it exhausts the non-renewable ones, then governments try to fool all the people all of the time, and then like a super nova or phoenix, a new government is born of the dreams of dust of the old one. One can fool people for a long time, but food, shelter, clothing and compassion are essential. (Work is important to keep minds busy.) Lose any of them and trouble starts. Money is labor hoarded, but it need not be debt. That was imposed from outside and accepted inside in a misdirection as many things are.
Some people "own" things. What an odd concept. Capitalism has no cost for resources. This is incorrect since there is a cost to multiple world creatures of some sort. If we ignore it of unionize it (extortion sometimes) there is profit magically. Socialism believes that if we all sit around smoke weed, manna will fall from heaven and feed us. I think that a sound society IMO believes that money is labor stored and financial instruments cause dislocations when the ratio of "pot smokers" to producers falls below a critical level for long enough. A sound society says to cheat one is to cheat all and endless warring will not be the solution IMO.
What you tie labor to doesn't matter (gold, tally sticks, bubble gum, pretty stones with a monopoly and a great marketing story line) as much as its being a sound store of labor. If it is subject to corrupt practices in its handling, then eventually an end will come. Government needs to shrink its size since it is a non-producer for the most part and very inefficient for the good it does do IMO. It like many unstable things, it tends to grow without limit based on the general human weakness - fear couple with the ability to imagine possible future outcomes.
Just my 2 cents worth (100 years ago it was a dollar - LOL)
PS: Since you seem to imply that you have the "correct" information, could you point out to us where I am going off track. Thanks.