Money, Banking and The Federal Reserve (Video)

by The Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood “The Monster”. But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates.

Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salemo, Hans Hoppe and Lew Rockwell, this estraordinary film is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed and why curbing it must be our first priority.

Alan Greenspan is not, we’re told, happy about this 42 minute blockbuster. Watch it and you’ll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.

You can order the “Money, Banking and The Federal Reserve on DVD at Mises.org

Ron Paul on Coast to Coast AM

Ron Paul on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory

A Sound Bite: Free Market Economy Has Failed

We have been subjected to the onslaught of this sound bite coming from the top Banksters and Main Stream Media from the beginning of the sub-prime fiasco.  Of course there is only one solution to a failure of a Free Market.  That’s right… more regulation.  More aptly put: Less Freedom and more Government Control.

How many people across the country are now repeating that sound bite?  Many Americans, wanting to demonstrate their knowledge in matters far above their daily life, are using sound bites like this one while repeating the latest propaganda spewing from the bought and paid for Main Stream Media.  Some may even engage in lengthy arguments over this misinformation and denial of obvious truths that have been staring them in the face for many, many decades.

The masses, having been focused on increasing their material wealth and “fun in the sun”,  haven’t had time to educate themselves on these very important issues. They depend on their limited education from government indoctrination centers, commonly referred to as “public education”, and the Main Stream Media for knowledge of the world around them. Imagine how different our reality might be if men and women had taken time after dinner, or right before bed, to read a book on any of these important matters.  In hindsight they might agree that a bit of self education is worth the effort to protect their freedom.

Is the sound bite “Free Market Economy Has Failed” in any way legitimate?

The truth of the matter is that intervention in the market, rather than the market economy itself, was the driving factor behind the bust.

F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for his work showing how the central bank’s intervention into the economy gives rise to the boom-bust cycle, making us feel prosperous until we suffer the inevitable crash. Most Americans know nothing about Hayek’s theory (known as the Austrian theory of the business cycle), and are therefore easy prey for the quacks who blame the market for problems caused by the manipulation of money and credit. The artificial booms the Fed provokes, wrote economist Henry Hazlitt decades ago, must end “in a crisis and a slump, and…worse than the slump itself may be the public delusion that the slump has been caused, not by the previous inflation, but by the inherent defects of ‘capitalism.’”

Although my recently released book, Meltdown explains the process in more detail, an abbreviated version of Austrian business cycle theory might run as follows:

Government-established central banks can artificially lower interest rates by increasing the supply of money (and thus the funds banks have available to lend) through the banking system. This is supposed to stimulate the economy. What it actually does is mislead investors into embarking on an investment boom that the artificially low rates seem to validate but that in fact cannot be sustained under existing economic conditions. Investments that would have correctly been assessed as unprofitable are falsely appraised as profitable, and over time the result is the squandering of countless resources in lines of investment that should never have been begun.

Source: “No, The Free Market Did Not CauseThe Financial Crisis”, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Continued Here.

Will Senate Allow Banksters To Reap More Rewards?

The provision giving judges the power to reduce mortgage principals and interest rates for homeowners in bankruptcy may be stripped from H.R. 1106 by the Senate.  The provision, referred to as “cramdown”, would not give more taxpayer money to the banks.  Instead, the Banksters may be offered “incentive payments” for “voluntarily” lowering interest rates.

From OpenCongress.org:

So far, all the foreclosure prevention plans that rely on voluntary participation from the banks have failed. If cramdown is removed from the current bill, we will be left with another voluntary plan plus some cash bonuses for banks. Homeowners who owe much more than the current value of their house will still not be helped.

Analysts: New Era Of Chaos Has Taken Hold

Banking collapse has already happened; Crisis is worst ever; Financial system has effectively disintegrated; Mass social insurrection likely

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, Feb 23rd, 2009

A wave of economists, investors and other financial experts issued a series of dire warnings concerning the global financial crisis over the weekend, stating that a new era of chaos has taken hold all over the globe.

Some asserted that a total banking collapse has already occurred, while others said that the downturn is now the worst on record, far outstripping the great depression.

Hedge fund manager and billionaire philanthropist George Soros said the financial system has effectively disintegrated, with the turbulence more severe than during the Great Depression and with the decline comparable to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker said he could not remember any time, even in the Great Depression, when things went down so fast and quite so uniformly around the world.

Financial market analyst Martin D. Weiss has stated that the banking collapse has already occurred and a major Wall Street meltdown is now imminent.

Leading forecasters, The National Association for Business Economics, have warned that the recession is projected to worsen and unemployment could hit 9% this year, 10% percent next year and continue to rise into 2011. In 2008, the jobless rate averaged 5.8 percent, the highest since 2003.

Financial professors Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University have said that the crisis is “as bad as they come”, warning that if the averages of previous crises hold, Americans can expect unemployment to reach 11 or 12 percent, housing prices nationally to drop 36 percent, stocks to lose more than half their value, and real output per capita to plunge 9.3 percent.

New York University economist Nouriel Roubini has predicted a lost decade of Japanese-style stagnation (a deadly combination of stagnation, recession and deflation) but on a worldwide basis.

“The global economy is now literally in free fall as the contraction of consumption, capital spending, residential investment, production, employment, exports and imports is accelerating rather than decelerating,” Roubini wrote.

More from PrisonPlanet.com

I Want My Bailout Money

‘Nuff Said!

Thanks to Phil for the heads up on this video.

Federal Reserve sets stage for Weimar-style Hyperinflation

“The Federal Reserve has bluntly refused a request by a major US financial news service to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from US taxpayers and to reveal the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Their lawyers resorted to the bizarre argument that they did so to protect ‘trade secrets.’ Is the secret that the US financial system is de facto bankrupt? The latest Fed move is further indication of the degree of panic and lack of clear strategy within the highest ranks of the US financial institutions. Unprecedented Federal Reserve expansion of the Monetary Base in recent weeks sets the stage for a future Weimar-style hyperinflation perhaps before 2010.”

Read the entire article by F. William Engdahl Here.

“Saving Bankster Bonuses”

An interesting article at UrbanSurvival.com about the Fed Moves over the last week with regard to the “economy.”  And as more and more people come to understand the trouble that lay ahead the “elite” continue to rape the taxpayers without fear of retribution.  Here are a couple of excerpts from the article.  Please click the link below to read the full article and roam the site for more interesting news.

With the interest rate cuts Tuesday the FED has now done 5 actions in ONE week!! UNPRECEDENTED in my memory (which unfortunately is longer than I wish it was)

Tues 3/11: Helicopter drop of $200 Billion Dollars into the banking system Fri 3/14: Helicopter drop of unknown amount of $$ into Bears Stearns via Chase Bank Sun 3/16: Helicopter drop of additional $30 Billion Dollars into Bears Stearns via Chase Bank Sun 3/16: 1/4 point rate cut Tues 3/18: 3/4 point rate cut

And the taxpayers footing the bill:

VOILA … since they did not file bankruptcy, but were instead “sold” for a mere $250 million (1/4 the value of their NYC office building) , the TAXPAYER, via the FED, ends up footing the MULTI BILLIONS DOLLARS in costs and expenses that would otherwise have been paid out of those returned Bonuses!!

In other words … and I am somewhat LIVID on this one: The Taxpayers GAVE those high paid INDIVIDUAL Wall Street Bankers at Bear Stearns a departing PERSONAL GIFT OF SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS by allowing this deal to be structured as it was!!

 See the entire article HERE.