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-----Original Message-----
From: OkieDame@xxxxxxx <OkieDame@xxxxxxx>
To: RealTraders Discussion Group <realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>I had to get up and go get a deep, fresh breath of air after reading
Bruce's
>response...lol Some people have all the answers and some people don't.
Some of us are in between, but let's compare notes.
>Anybody who's done any reading at all knows the Federal Reserve is a
private
>corporation, and only goes up the Hill to humor the (in this case,
powerless)
>Congress, which keeps them from making the Federal Reserve a government
>entity.
Ok, I just did a little reading, at the Fed's website actually, and here's
how they describe themselves (the part in parentheses I added):
The Federal Reserve System is considered to be an independent
central bank. It is so, however, only in the sense that its decisions
do not have to be ratified by the President or anyone else in the
executive branch of government. The entire System is subject to
oversight by the U.S. Congress because the Constitution gives to
Congress the power to coin money and set its value—a power
that, in the 1913 act (the act which created the Federal Reserve to begin
with), Congress itself delegated to the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve must work within the framework of
the overall objectives of economic and financial policy established
by the government, and thus the description of the System as “independent
within the government” is more accurate.
This same document goes on to descibe about a dozen different acts Congress
has passed over the years to modify the powers of the Fed.
>Have you ever heard of Congress or the President REQUIRING that the
>Fed alter interest rates or money supply, etc?
No, that's why they created the Fed and a Chairman to begin with, to make
those decisions for them. Just as we elect people to Congress to vote for
us.
> Didn't think so....they can
>suggest, make their queries, but the Fed is Hands Off.
Yes, hands off on day to day policy, but the Fed's powers can be changed at
any time by an act of Congress, or the president can decide to nominate a
new chairman (once his 8 year term is over) if either body is extremely
unhappy with the Fed's actions. The Congress also can't do anything about
the day to day decisions of federal judges, but they can remove them if they
feel they've crossed the line.
>The last I'd read they
>did not account for their revenues to anyone; in fact no one seems to know
how
>much they make, although they turn a token amount and report over to the
>Treasury each year, voluntarily.
Oh yes, the Fed is so secretive about their financial activites that they
make public a complete balance sheet, which is updated every Thursday...
It's even on their website. Here's the link, just make sure you have your
Acrobat reader working::
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pf/pdf/frspfap.pdf
It includes about 30 pages of detailed explanations of what all the numbers
mean. So much for secrecy. Joanie, the only thing the Fed doesn't reveal
about itself is what they're going to do with short term interest rates at
any given moment, but even there they drop a lot of hints.
>And I didn't learn that in Nutcracker101 in
>college....I learned that in both undergraduate and graduate school in
Money &
>Banking. And if you don't think the Chairman is annointed by the Eastern
>Establishment and banking powerbrokers, prior to being appointed by the
>Pres,
Actually, this is another example of how conspiracy theorists take a simple
action and put a very devious spin on it. Joanie, if you were president and
were looking to hire a Fed chairman, who would you go talk to? A bunch of
farmers in the Midwest? Wouldn't it kind of make sense to go talk to some
people in the heart of the investment banking center of the country in the
Northeast?
I'm sure before hiring Robert Rubin (former Goldman Sachs partner) as
Treasury Secretary Clinton consulted with a lot of the "Eastern
Establishment" who "anointed" him. Should I be worried about this?
I'm sorry, but none of this makes me lose any sleep at night, it just seems
like the rational, intelligent thing to do.
Bruce
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