Federal Reserve: fact or conspiracy?
- Thread starter rselitetrader
- Start date
Are you going to explain how/why the central banks are evil instead of calling the guy names?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_central_banks#Countries_without_central_banks
2 of 3 still have some committee for monetary policy
I'm not a big believer in mega-conspiracies because the bigger the conspiracy the greater the probability somebody will blow the whistle.
However, given that the Fed has a long-standing special relationship with Goldman Sachs (e.g. Fed gave GS Germany's gold in exchange for "securities") how probable is it that nobody in the know in the Fed tips off GS on upcoming policy announcements hours, days, or weeks before they're publicly announced?
Given that such advance info might be worth hundreds of millions or even billions how probable is it that it never happens?
However, given that the Fed has a long-standing special relationship with Goldman Sachs (e.g. Fed gave GS Germany's gold in exchange for "securities") how probable is it that nobody in the know in the Fed tips off GS on upcoming policy announcements hours, days, or weeks before they're publicly announced?
Given that such advance info might be worth hundreds of millions or even billions how probable is it that it never happens?
Of course the Fed did step in and was instrumental in assuring the survival of a few major banks, and along with them the assets of some of the "elites" you refer to. But this is not all they did, and to assume such is to greatly understate the Fed's accomplishments. They are the Regulator of banks in the U.S., and one of their extremely important functions is the maintaining of stability and confidence in the banking system. They would have been derelict had they done nothing and instead let the banks fail! On the other hand, they can be rightly faulted for not stepping in far sooner to halt rampant mortgage abuses. The Greenspan Fed, of which Bernanke was a part, was, after all, a cog in the insanity machine that led to the 2008 financial crisis. Nevertheless, the Fed was instrumental in bringing the U.S. back from the brink of financial disaster, even if it was a crisis largely made of their own inaction. They acted at least three years later then they should have, but they eventually did act!
Saving major banks, and those elites you mentioned, was just the tip of the iceberg. They also saved the pension funds and retirement accounts of millions of Americans with IRA's and 401Ks, 403bs, etc. They also helped rescue the U.S.Construction Industry, the U.S. Real Estate Industry, the U.S. Automobile Industry, and restored value to trillions of dollars of real estate by bringing down both short and long term interest rates to historic lows.
I did not think that some of the choices made by the Fed and the Treasury were the best choices they might have made. The Treasury and Fed together held all he cards, and as a pre-condition they should have insisted on compensation reforms to remove the incentives for a repeat performance. And in hindsight, I think Soros was right when he said it would be much better to replenish the Banks' equity without having the Fed buy the banks' otherwise unmarketable paper. They should have left that paper with the banks, and let the banks work through their losses over time, leaving the equity holders to pass ultimate judgement on the quality of the banks' management. Paulson, I believe, was more the force behind that poor decision than was Bernanke.
Regardless, you vastly understate the role of the Fed in bringing the country back from the brink of financial collapse.
