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You won’t believe the idea that America’s quintessential foreign policy establishment organ is floating now.
Or maybe you will.
Foreign Affairs is the journal of the Council of Foreign Relations, the organization that seems to drive much of the consensus foreign policy of the country, and from whose membership the top officials of Republican and Democrat administrations are regularly drawn.
In its September/October issue, Foreign Affairs wanders away from the calamity of its interventionist foreign policy consensus to offer equally calamitous interventionist monetary advice.
The publication offers a piece instructing the Federal Reserve to give the money it prints directly to the people.
To make sure there is no mistake about this, the article is even entitled Print Less but Transfer More: Why Central Banks Should Give Money Directly to the People.
The Federal Reserve has already created trillions of dollars at the printing press, most of which ended up as bank reserves on deposit with the Fed.
Why isn’t that money being used in the economy making loans, funding new and expanding businesses, and creating jobs?
Because under the prevailing conditions of malinvestment and distorted credit conditions, capable borrowers are not lining up to take out loans. Why should a business expand its plant and add to its employment when it can’t sell what it can produce with its existing capacity?
Why expect a business to borrow more when its existing debt is too great? Why would lenders willingly make loans to borrowers who may not be credit worthy?
The distortion caused by the Fed’s interference with interest rates has concealed problems in the economy, and even enabled marginal and otherwise failing business to limp along a while longer thanks to artificially low rates. Many of them will fall by the roadside when rates rise, succumbing to real market conditions.
In other words Fed policies have prevented the liquidation of bad debt and clouded real financial conditions.
Much of the economy is operating in the dark.
The Fed can print money, but it can’t force borrowers — households or businesses — to borrow when they are concerned with whether they can pay the money back. And except for costly government guarantees, the Fed has a hard time making lenders loan money to risky borrowers.
Under these conditions, when banks won’t make loans, all the freshly printed money sits idly on the sidelines of the economy, parked in the present environment in the reserves the banks keep on deposit with the Fed.
That’s where Helicopter Ben Bernanke comes in. Under such conditions Bernanke, citing Milton Friedman before him, said that if need be the Fed could simply drop cash from helicopter doors into the waiting hands of people below.
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| What incentive is there to work when money falls like manna from heaven? |
The Fed, according to this incompletely thought-out option, could generate consumer spending in this way, bypassing financial institutions like banks and employers altogether.
It is an idea of Keynesian absurdity. What will make merchants willing to sell their goods, or businesses willing to sell their production, at yesterday’s price when they see today that free money is raining down from the skies above?
What assures savings and capital formation when it rains money? What assures productive effort — work — when money falls like manna from heaven?
Of course the business about shoving money out helicopter doors is just a metaphor, much as is the expression “printing money.”
The Fed actually creates money in a way that is the functional equivalent of just printing it up, except that it’s a more sophisticated sleight of hand. And it is all done digitally, without even the expense of old-fashioned paper and ink.
In the same way, the provision of liquidity directly into the hands of the populous is not really dependent on a fleet of Fed helicopters. Other more sophisticated means are available, like the negative income tax that envisions sending money directly to people below some fixed income level.
The authors of the Foreign Affairs piece write, “The Fed should hand consumers cash directly. In practice, this policy could take the form of giving central banks the ability to hand their countries’ tax-paying households a certain amount of money.”
While there’s no need for actual helicopters in this proposed mechanism, the authors make up for it by proposing another even more bizarre scheme.
The Fed should issue debt, they propose, and invest the proceeds in a global equity index. “After around 15 years, the funds could distribute their equity holdings to the lowest-earning 80 percent of taxpayers.”
Now there’s a shell game for you. Who pays the interest on all that money the Fed is supposed to borrow to make cost-free government speculation possible? Who is impoverished by the currency debauchment implicit in these rackets?
Among the first victims are the lowest 80 percent.
[Editor’s note: How do you feel about the Federal Reserve transferring more money directly to the people? You can put your comments here.]
The whole thing has the ring of adolescence, like little Mickey Rooney saying, “Hey kids! Let’s put on a show!”
In fact the authors even conclude with an eager sounding, “All it will take to change course is the courage, brains, and leadership to try something new.”
Hey, kids!
But there is nothing at all new about thimble-rigging and no brain power at work in helicopter money stunts. Such schemes are older than John Law of the Mississippi Bubble, the assignats of the French Reign of Terror, or Gideon Gono.
Gono was the central banker who made the 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill the currency of everyday commerce. One can easily imagine Gono in 2003 bubbling with childish enthusiasm, “Hey kids! Let’s increase the money supply by a factor of 20,000,000 times.”
That the editors of Foreign Affairs take seriously such puerile nonsense suggests how frighteningly close the governing classes of this country are to adopting something like it.
A Footnote about 9/11
Today marks 13 years since the 9/11 attacks. Wouldn’t it be a fitting tribute to the victims, their loved ones, and those who have died in the subsequent warfare to make complete our understanding of the hidden forces and undisclosed events involved in the tragedy?
Or would it be better to remain in the dark and let policymakers continue operating from their familiar perspective of ignorance?
Thirteen years after the attacks, 28 pages of the joint Senate and House report remain hidden, kept under lock and key. Those few who have read the secret findings of the Congressional investigation, among them Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., describe themselves as shocked at what they have discovered.
They have made it clear that the concealed findings have nothing to do with national security. That is not a surprise. The state reflexively buries the truth to avoid embarrassing the governing classes.
Because both Congressmen Jones and Lynch believe the American people have a right to know what is in these hidden pages they have introduced a resolution calling on President Obama to declassify the 28 pages of the report that were originally classified by President Bush.
Others who have joined the call for the release of the secret findings include 9/11 victims’ family members, Senator Bob Graham, who served a co-chairman of the joint congressional inquiry, both of the 9/11 Commission Co-Chairs, Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, and even congressional witnesses in the case who feel their testimony has been misrepresented.
The truth is a fitting tribute to the fallen and the innocent.
Let your congressman and senators know you want the secret 9/11 findings declassified.
Best wishes,
Charles Goyette
P.S. Martin has been answering your questions in his new Q&A video series! Click here to view now! You will also be able to catch up on the urgent video briefings that he posted last week.
Charles Goyette, who more than 25 years ago arranged for a then-little-known Texas congressman named Ron Paul to be a keynote speaker at a series of his monetary conferences, is the editor of the Freedom & Prosperity Letter and the Extreme Profit Hunter. A public figure, Charles has been a participant in the national political debate as a radio talk-show host, writer and speaker. He is often called upon to share his views with national television audiences, including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and PBS.
The longtime Libertarian also has written for magazines including The American Conservative. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller “The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments.†His newest book is “Red and Blue and Broke All Over: Restoring America’s Free Economy.â€
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Yes, indeed, who is paying the interest on all this borrowed money?
But even more so, what happens to the value of this “global equity index” when the 15 years is up and they have to start selling it en masse to distribute it to the populace?
Allen,
That day,15 years away would be the biggest joke ever played. The $ ‘s, persons, & even nationalities of recipients likely beyond most imagination. Other than the PERPS proposing this.
The story is part of a smoke screen designed to delude the masses as to the source of new money that will indeed be distributed to them. This is done in order to quell fears of the death of the Federal Reserve Note as the world trade currency when the Treasury Reserve Note, backed by assets in the new world order’s Sovereign Debt Restructuring fund, is issued.
http://philosophyofmetrics.com/2014/03/11/sdrs-and-the-new-bretton-woods-part-nine/#more-268
Jail them immediately.
I agree. Lets start with this list of war criminals:
Dick Cheney
William Kristol
Donald Rumsfeld
Dan Quayle
Paul Wolfowitz
Scooter Libby
I thought I was the only one who reads this guy and his followers for fun!
BALDERDASH!!
Provide proof to the contrary. Close off the questioning by simply providing the entire, unfiltered truth of what happened that day. If you can not provide that information tom, the questions remain legitimate and on the table.
Here’s an idea:
Why not reduce Federal and State taxes to a maximum of 10 percent of gross income (total combined) across the board for all wage earners and corporations for 2 years then increase the taxes rates 0.5 per cent per year for the next 30 years to a total level of 25 percent of income maximum. No deductions, No special set asides, No nothing.
Also, restrict all Sales taxes at a maximum rate of not more then 3 percent with a 0.1 percent annual increase over the same period.
This would require the Government (All Governments) to live within there means.
This would give the people more money to spend and would spur investment and corporate expansion and therefore jobs and more employment. Which in-turn would spur spending and manufacturing and jobs. You get the picture.
Respectfully
David L. Deputy
You might get the 10% income tax and the 3% sales tax.The rest,you can forget about.Anything beyond 1 year is not going to happen.When has govt done anything that stayed the same for 30 years?
The government will never vote itself LESS money even though that is what is needed
When you can’t chalk it up to stupidity, it must be evil.
It’s a great idea! Just as great of an idea as letting a drunk walk into a bar, buy a round or two for his drunken buddies, and then, instead of saying, “Put it on my tab” he says, “Just put it on my grandchildren’s tab”.
Thomas Jefferson thought it was immoral for one generation to leave it’s debts to another generation. I wonder what he would have thought of this?
That is what the bankers have been doing for years. Only instead of sticking it to our grand children, they have stuck it to us. They have moved jobs out of the country, off shored their profits, invested in derivatives, made billions lending to people who can’t afford it, then foreclosed on those same properties, and asking you and me to cover their losses. Let’s kick the big spending lushes out of the bar first, then you can talk about the people with out a penny looking in the window just wanting a sip of a cold beer.
I think that giving away free money is a wonderful idea. Let’s abolish all Federal taxes and distribute all that free money directly through the government. Instead of collecting taxes, the US will simply distribute dollars to anyone who will accept them as payment.
Three months later, when nobody bothers coming to work in Washington, DC and there are no favors for the K Street lobbyists to buy from Congress, and every last crooked bankster has fled the country for someplace that takes Swiss francs as payment, we can then start over with a clean slate.
Why fight a revolution against the powers-that-be, when those powers-that-be may be perfectly willing to abdicate?
The recent history of Russia demonstrates the wisdom of this course of action.
When Russia’s oligarchs, having ended up with an ownership interest in everything they couldn’t steal and export and sell for cash, needed to re-legalize ownership of private property, they simply allowed the Soviet Communist Party to go bankrupt. The USSR broke apart into 13 republics, that held the actual machinery of government. Absent the Party and the ideologues, the statute that made owning stuff a crime, had no one to defend it and was easily repealed. This was a personal tragedy for the ideologues, who had to find some other form of employment, but it saved the country a major war. (Instead, they’re having a minor war, over the unwinding of a deal built by Comrade Stalin in the 1930’s, in which the Ukrainian Communist Party was granted control of the Kazakh (aka Cossack) lands east of Ukraine, in exchange for providing troops to help starve the Cossacks into submission. The deal is coming unwound noisily, because Russian-speaking Cossacks prefer to be governed badly by corrupt Russians who explain in plain Russian what they want, rather than be governed by corrupt Ukrainians who explain in Ukrainian what they want, then demand one hire a translator to figure out what their latest edict says. No Cossack nowadays needs to be starved into submission, for any reason whatsoever, and Ukraine has nothing to trade for the power to continue governing those lands. Hence, the forthcoming partition of Ukraine into a Ukrainian-speaking west and a Russian-speaking east. Mr Putin understands that he could occupy Kyiv in two weeks of all-out fighting, but it would be ungovernable. Conversely, if the Ukrainians simply give up on keeping their Stalin-era gift. The big loser in the deal seems to be Europe: They lost their recent reputation as a global center of peace and tolerance, in exchange for union with the Ukrainian-speaking west of today’s Ukraine. Russia gets back the Donbass and Crimea. The EU gets the debts, with a small side order of lebensraum.)
We, of course, would be huge winners if we followed Russia’s example, and simply allowed our ideologues to make themselves poor. There would be no need for massive military spending nor foreign interventionism. Bankrupt banksters, immunized from their past crimes, would have neither the will nor the ability to pay the opportunists inside the Beltway, to maintain business as usual.
Could the Russian solution work in Europe?
It’s doubtful. Europe has almost no oil.
Pity.
Absolute Insanity! A sinister force to destabilize this country?
DROPING MONEY FROM HELICOPTERS IS WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING WHEN THEY GIVE THE NON WORKER OVER $50,000 A YEAR FOR FREE. THEY GET MOR FROM THE GOVERNMENT THAN THEY COULD MAK IF WORKING. SO WHY SHOULD THEY WORK? THAT LEAVES ONLY ABOUT 50% WORKING AND IF YOU TAKE OUT THOSE WHO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT AS NON PRODUCERS THAT LEAVE DARN FEW WHO WORK. THE REST ARE ON THE GIFT SYSTEM.
your right GEORGE but why not give it too the people instead of some country like
Iran who will send it back in a bomb !!! AMERICA needs to wake up and start
taking care of AMERICA you don’t see RUSSIA or CHINA trying to take care of
the WORLD keep or money home lets get AMERICA back on track!!!!!
in the digital age why do we need bernache,helicopters, or all the banks and their duplicated brick and mortar branches.
t.parker
The government didn’t step in before the financial crisis to help individuals when fuel prices were going through the roof and impacted on the ability to pay their mortgages. They waited until it impacted the big mortgage/derivatives holders. Since then their money printing continues to contribute to the wealth of the wealthy and access to cheap money evades the poorer masses who can only access high interest credit if at all. The mass markets, needed for a robust economy are decimatd.
The Feds need to spread the wealth before it is too late.
The government has caused enough trouble the last 20 years (with the last 6 being the worst). Get out of the way and let capitalism do it’s job. It is what made this country great and what will bring it back again.
I thought the Fed though the treasury department was already handing out money-the USDA and its farm program hand out millions to wealthy landowners and farmers-on the flip side of this then there is the food stamp program for the poor. What about the affordable healthcare act whereby in the future millions will be handed out to wealthy docs-this is already going on with medicare-then there is medicade on the flip side for the poor. What about the billions handed out to the dictators of the world in regard to foreign aid???-None of this would possible without the Fed backstopping it all.
When you get a phone call offering you a free 3 day stay in Florida, what do you think? Whenever something is given away for free, it leaves the impression of diminished value and desperation. And thievery! It always leaves me thinking “too good to be true” or “what’s the catch?” There ALWAYS is one! In this case, it’s OUR money to begin with!
A year or so before the ’08 debacle, I was getting my hair cut, and in the chair next to me was a man doing the same, although he was venting to his hairdresser his frustration with his banking job. You see, he worked for what I believe may have been the FDIC. He basically said that because of the fractional reserve system we had, that if there were to ever be a run on the banks, that the ONLY people to get money out, would be the ones who had access to the computers and the access codes.
While the hairdresser’s eyes glazed over, he continued and said that the powers that be would only look out for themselves and that some day soon, the regular Joes would totally be screwed over by the very banks created to “serve” them.
I told my husband and several others in the banking business what he had said. They thought he was just a conspiracy theorist and a little nuts. THEN the ’08 DEBACLE HAPPENED!
The banks are even bigger and badder now than in ’08! Leveraged to the hilt — derivatives that nobody DARES to “unwind” — because they CAN’T!!!
And NOBODY has gone to jail! So what’s to stop it from happening again?
And just WHO do you think will look out for YOU?????
You going to send all those dishonest idiots,who bought houses at the peak of the housing mania,thinking they would get rich and then gave back the keys when house prices declined?How honest are they?Tired of reading comments about how the rich and lenders are screwing all the sainted middle and lower class.What nonsense.
Susie is absolutely right, and so is the man she overheard. Getting rid of central banks — world wide — is one way to bring some sanity back to this world (and perhaps get the US out of its cycle of continuous wars). . .but it won’t happen! There is only one hope for mankind — see Matthew 6: 9-15 with the key being the government (kingdom) in verse 10 that Jesus taught us to pray for. That is the “one world government or order” that this world is in desperate need of.
The FED has been causing problems ever since its inception in 1913. Wasn’t it Einstien who stated that no problem can be solved from the same mind set that created it in the first place. I think the FED may be grasping straws to justify its own existence, when the hand writing is already on the wall. The FED can be abolished and replaced with a Treasury Bank answerable directly to congress and the president, no more secrets allowed. Ah, but that would restore constitutionality to government, especially if the new US Treasury Note is backed by gold/silver and other commodities such as diamonds perhaps. A private cenral bank is just a bankers’ way of controling government and property throu the creation of dept.
Scares the hell out of me. As a business owner I have already put much greater emphasis on short term profit over growth. We are at capacity and I want to avoid additional investment because of uncertainty that fed policy is magnifying.
If the Fed just has to give money out, just put it in our underfunded entitlement funds!
How fair is that, then we all get what we were promised.
More Marxist horBob Arissseshit.
Up is down and down is up! What kind of cockamamie economic rationale do these people subscribe to? Putin & ISIS will soon give these loonies something to really be concerned about.
If the Fed prints money and “gives” it to the banks, the banks get richer. They invest it and their profits go up. There is plenty of evidence to that. It didn’t help the economy, except for the rich getting richer.
I always thought that if you put the printed funds in the hands of the consumer, they could pay down their debts and buy more stuff. The banks would get some of the money by way of the consumer paying off credit debt and the economy would improve due to increase spending.
You don’t necessarily have to send everyone a check, but give everyone a $10,000 savings bond. The frugal person could hold it and accumulate interest at the rate of 3% or cash it in and buy stock in a quality company. Or they could just spend it anyway the want. We don’t need the government telling us how to spend our money.
Stupidest idea ever floated!!!
Charles, the Fed has transferred those trillions to the banks and they are holding, not loaning these funds, using it to invest and speculate in all markets. WHY doesn’t the Fed require the banks to return the funds and thus reduce part of this huge deficit??
Enjoy your great articles and commentary.
Bob
Short sighted Democrats in action again.
Not going to get on my soap boxes of the multiple fixes to SS, Immigration, welfare, and taxation that should be done that would have much greater overall impact both immediately and long-term.
It doesn’t have to make sense to be policy.
It is quite obvious that the federal govt is intent on wrecking the U.S. financial system so they can turn it over to the one world govt because we are inept of taking care of ourselves. But, only morons and idiots could conceive of a plan like this to cast it on a bunch of imbeciles.
Instead of giving money to everyone, there should be a lottery in which every citizen is automatically enrolled at no cost. Every week, 100,000 winners would be drawn with each winner receiving $10,000. That would be $52 billion a year. That would remove the incentive for people to not work to earn money on their own. While some of that money would go to the 1%, the great majority would go to people who need it to pay bills, pay off debts, and buy things they need.
The ultimate end of all untethered currency is total collapse. The US dollar in whatever form it is described is an untethered currency. Without a monetary anchor such as gold/silver ETC manipulation is inevitable. This scheme is but another wrong headed attempt to slow the demise of the dollar, It like the mumbo jumbo of Federal Reserve purchases of US debt will have the opposite effect.
You got it and the collapse may be sooner than the genius’ at the Fed know.
I always felt the Fed should have given mortgage holders coupons for them to use to pay toward their mortgages rather than give money directly to the banks. That would have reduced the number of defaults much more efficiently than having the banks write down mortgages and reduce their interest rates on a case by case basis. The funds would still have ended up at the banks and the terms could have been set by the Fed for their repayment over time. Think of all the suffering it would have helped avoid.
What about the smart people who paid off their mortgage instead of buying dumb things? We could have had a vacation house or a boat but we saved up and paid off our debt instead of tapping into the equity in our house. People were acting like their house was a piggy bank and borrowed against it to buy anything and everything they wanted, which is bad financial sense. We also saved to put our kids through college because we wanted them to have every opportunity to succeed.
Charles, here’s what I think the Fed should do: take all the money they are considering “giving” to the lowest 80% of income earners and INSTEAD, invest it in the development of a time machine.
Once the time machine is functional, the Fed (or maybe you as their representative) should then go back in time to September 10, 1833 and meet up with President Andrew Jackson who, on that same day, ended the Second Bank of the United States (the Federal Reserve Bank of his day).
Jackson in hand, the time machine operator (you, after proper training) should then go back to the 15th century and prevent the marriage that led to he birth of Giovanni di Bicci di’Medici (Medici Bank founder). You both would then fast forward to 1577 and prevent the marriage that led to the birth of dynasty started by Izaak Elchanan Rothschild in 1577, then leap to 1671 to prevent the birth of Scotsman John Law, and finally journey on to January 11, 1757 to prevent the birth of Alexander Hamilton, the founder of the first Central Bank of the United States — the National Bank (which would have effectively made September 10, 1833 a mute point).
Anyhow, my point obviously is — DO AWAY WITH CENTRAL BANKS!
The fact is, the Fed has been dumping money from helicopters for years. The problem is that the only place this money goes is into the hands of the bankers, institutional investors and large industrialists. This is the reason why the wealth gap in this country is at a level that doesn’t leave much more than revolution to correct.
Why now, when people are talking about getting money into the hands of the consumers, do you think that dumping money from helicopters is a bad idea? American consumers, the lower 80 percent are suffering at a level not seen since the great depression. One of the “radical” solutions at that point was public works projects. In fact, public works projects have frequently been used to stimulate the economy. As you well know, the unemployment figures are completely bogus. The number of people who have left the work force is at the highest level in recent memory. The number of underemployed people is at a huge level. If those people have a minimal stipend per month, that money will be spent, and circulate through the economy typically 7 times. It will generate new jobs, new factory orders, and new sales taxes for stressed communities. If we can bail out bankers with their multimillion dollar incomes, why can’t we bail out the American consumer, an at the same time succeed at the stimulation job that the fed has been trying to do by pumping money in at the top. And whose going to pay the interest? Let’s talk about taxing the trillions of fed money that the large banks and corporations have stashed offshore. Why is it that welfare for the banks and large corporations is good economics, and money into the hands of 80 % of the consumers who desperately need it is bad policy.
I agree, Gary. Mr. goyette asks “Why isn’t that money being used in the economy…? And then suggest that businesses won’t make loans if they aren’t confident they can sell their goods? Mr. Goyette and many others seem to preclude the obvious that the 80% of the non-wealthy are making rational decisions to conserve their shrinking buying power the decline in full time employment and the rise of only low income options among the poorest.
The underlying assumption is that the poor are poor because they are lazy. Perhaps many poor are poor and will continue to be poor until there is ample opportunity for the ambitious among the poor to work hard and be compensated enough to pay rent, give their children some semblance of opportunity as well as an education that actually gives them the knowledge to qualify for more than basic survival?
I suggest that most of the poor are poor because of the assumption such as Mr. goyette makes that governments investing in businesses is the solution. We’ve seen the results of easy money policy: bankers skim billions and large corporations hold onto their profits. We’ve seen little trickle-down.
I’m afraid that persistence of an oligarchical viewpoint will not only not relive the problem but exacerbate it. Oligarchy is the lethal enemy of Democracy. It’s the same formula as what created the French Revolution. That is a widening gap between the wealthy and the populace. It is the same formula that along with religious intolerance is creating world-wide wars. We are badly in need of infrastucture rebuilding, in fact failure to do so quickly will result in increasing failure of bridges water supply etc.
Investing in public works following the Depression was an unmitigated success. What might be the reason for taking a proven solution?
I’m afraid the answer may well be Mr. Goyette and others Oligarchical point of view
The author acts like the Fed is making decisions on what is the best for the country,in the long term.Actually,they are in crisis mode,just trying anything,in the short term,to keep the Titanic from sinking.When the Dollar holders finally give up,that will end this nonsense.
I would spent the loot on case lot food and other survival goods I would need to make it through three to five tough years. Tough years brought on by printing funny money and crashing the worlds greatest e-CON-o-my. Some day the worlds economy’s will not rebound as they have in the past. We could enter a fifteen to thirty year down turn just from printing funny money and getting rid of the welfare states around the world.
I used to be a hard working, independent person. But the government has stolen so much of my nest egg that at this point, fine, just return some of my money to me. I have given up on many of my idealistic feelings. Like work hard, save money and live in a free society without Big Brother watching and listening to everything. How far we have fallen as a country.
The Federal Reserve is doing more harm to United States and the Constitution than anything. Call, e-mail your congress people and demand them to repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and return the Constitutional authority back to congress under Article 1 Section 8, To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of Foreign coin. known as the money clause.
Demand the repeal of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and to implement the philosophy of Social Credit into the laws of the nation. Then the United States Government would no longer be under the control of the Bankers, but would become a servant of the American people.
When a government is dependent for money upon the bankers (Federal Reserve), they and not the government leaders control the nation. This is because the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Financiers are without patriotism and without decency.
America would be a debt-free nation, the most prosperous in the world. And the brains and the wealth of the world would come to America, If it wasn’t for the Federal Reserve.
It’s already been done, has no force and effect and 1 dead president! “on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System.” “Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S.A. the ability to, once again, create its own money backed by silver and realm value worth something.
President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and the United States Notes he had issued were immediately taken out of circulation.”
http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.ca/2010/09/jfks-executive-order-11100-abolishing.html
I agree completely, very true.
There is no way this notion should be attributed to Milton Friedman, he never advocated any such thing. With regard to this notion, absurdity has now become the mildest word in the dictionary. No surprise with today’s lack of economic acuity.
Joe
This tactic of giving money directly to the people was already done, TWICE, during the G W Bush Presidency! It was in the form a a Tax Rebate in the early 2000’s. Do you remember this?
If the government, heck with the Federal Reserve, wants to stimulate the economy and put money into the hands of the populace they merely need to reduce the tax rate and let the tax returns stimulate the economy. This has worked over and over again. Why not now?
When I first started reading about having the proposal that the Fed mail money directly to the consumer, it reminded me of (when I was a small boy), seeing a man in Salina, KS who was standing on the street corner handing out literature promoting the Townsend Plan. This was during the time leading up to the beginning of Social Security. As I recall, the The Townsend Plan advocated providing $400 per month to each family. (I could be mistaken in the amount …. I remember it was a “staggering” amount, for that time) The money had to be spent (it could not be saved). The idea was to get money into circulation, immediately, to stimulate the economy. Could this be a plan …. in this day and age of “progressive” thinking …. of providing an income to EVERYBODY, as plans that appear to be Socialistic are being promoted?
I can only imagine what the inflation rate will be if they do something as stupid as distributing money directly to companies or individuals.
All that comes to mind is, “liberalism is a form of insanity.” The absolute fruitcakes that purposed this had to have voted for Obama and his “fundamental transformation of America.” Well WTH, we already have a FED all but doing this now. How much longer can the world’s “pretend economic system” go on before the coming huge bust? A rhetoric question, I know, because no one knows that answer.
Why, not? pass out another billion to all tax payers and let them spend it. We are being ripped off as it is. If we can give a couple billion to Pakistan and a billion or more to Iraq why not pass out a billion to US taxpayers/ legal citizens. Make it a one time tax refund only if you have paid taxes for 10 years. The money will get spent and give a boost to the economy.
We are screwed anyway, whats another billion when we are realistically over 20 TRILLION in the hole already. The government is pissing away at least a billion a year on pure crap now.
Boy, what a crazy idea… give even more free money to dead beats, many who have never worked a day in their life. A better solution is to tax the upper 20% at a higher rate, like Buffett and MicroSoft on financial manipulation earnings. Then lower by at least 40% the tax of the 80% of those who WORK for a living and are not parasites. The key is to reward those who WORKED for a living…. not give even more free money to deadbeats who do not deserve a penny more of free money. At a recent study.. a family of 4 received 60,000 dollars of annual aid….for not working one minute… things need to change.
I agree with Mr. Ellis, we have been giving away so much money that we are now saddled with $17Trillion in debt. The FED’s proposal would only be a different vehicle for applying Obama economics.
America is NOT in 17 trillion debt. You are adding the so-called ‘Legacy” costs that Conservative Republicans add in to make Social Security look bad.
SS is a pay as you go system. And cutting Social Security would do nothing for the debt or deficit. If you don’t believe me, then listen to the Gipper:
youtube*com/watch?v=ihUoRD4pYzI
SOUNDS LIKE WHAT CAUSED THE DOWN-FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE !
AREN’T THESE THE SAME PEOPLE THAT WERE THE CAUSE OF OUR
PROBLEMS HERE IN THE U.S.A. IN THE 1960’S ? IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE
THEY LEARNED A THING. CHUCK ADKINS
Military overreach caused the downfall of the Roman Empire. Rome was not a Republic or a Democracy at the time of her demise.
For those wanting to fully understand the FED and their private, not public owners, I strongly recommend reading “The Creature from Jekyll Island.”
The Council on Foreign Relations…oh where to begin. One can understand their true motives by also reading the aforementioned book.
While I was at Stanford University there were many controversial and duplicitous members of the CFR working at the Hoover Institute.
Keep up the good fight, Charles and continue to shine the light of truth so hopefully Americans will wake up. Thank you.
If the government has that much extra money, how about eliminating the tax on 85% of retiree’s Social Security benefits and giving a COLA to Social Security recipients that is in line with the real inflation.
The great thinkers like Adam Smith have been replaced by thoughtless teenagers.
How do you feel about the Federal Reserve transferring more money directly to the people? – I have no interest in any program that the gov puts together. When I forget that I go to the Post Office or go to the DMV for a quick reminder. If I ready get stupid, I read about Freddy Mac or Fanny Mae. Enough said.
I am in the process of saving enough money to invest so I say let the helicopter fly! In the meantime I will be looking skyward to collect just enough to allow my entry into the market, It’s tough being in the lowest 80%.
What could be done instead of direct payments is allow the workers to join Labor Unions so they can negotiate higher wages. And by rebuilding America crumbling infrastructure commerce would be able to interact better and more efficiently.
Of course, that would admit that what Mr Obama proposed way back in 2008 was the correct thing to do.
However, the rich Conservative Republican non-union contractors would have to actually bid against qualified contractors instead of getting their “no bid” contracts from their Conservative Republican buddies!
Why if our government can forgive debts from small countries and still loan them money, why should the government not give the people money to purchase goods and cars or whatever they need from money given from the Federal Reserve
The Gov did that twice before and it didn’t solve the problems. Doing the same thing and expecting different results ……………..
Stability is what we need to get the economy moving. Replace the tax code with a simple flat tax and commitment not to change it more than once every 5 yrs would allow businesses and individuals to plan and commit.
The fraudulent criminal Federal Reserve (which is private and has no reserves) is going to print money via QE4 anyway. The federal govt (controlled by aliens who commute in from Pluto) has no control over them.
So then ask yourself the question which will produce the most damage ??
1- Giving it to the Banksters, or
2- Giving it to the actual taxpayers via an income tax filing provision ???
Either way produces the same damage to the US$, so I say #2.
Willy Workinstiff
Excellent idea. If people have more money, demand will increase, companies will expand to meet the rising demand and take on more workers. More working people will increase savings and deposits in bank accounts, who will then have more money to lend. GDP will expand and US of A will be that much richer.
It is what we will do with our increased wealth that is really worrying me. More arms for more wars?
The Federal Reserve was man made by a bunch of rich men who were concerned mostly with maintainng stability which means they wanted the existing rich to stay rich. They have been successful execpt for some brash technical wizards who have upset the Apple or and Facebook cart since they did not realize how millions of shares times a big number can generate so much wealth. This was all done legally in contrast to old money since that was mostly generated through crooked means. We need to eliminate the Federal Reserve Board and allow the economy to run the country. Just get rid of the ACLU and their hatred of anything good and noble.
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I am not sure that giving directly to the people of the USA 4 Trillion dollars would solve the problem of this economy but giving it to the 5 or 6 biggest banks and Wall street sure did not help. Just imagine if every legal citizen of the USA had a $100,000.00 tax free. They would either spend it or put in savings or investments. Either way the governments collects taxes and the economy would take off like a rocket. Then eliminate the IRS and establish the Fair Tax. The USA would grow at an unbelievable pace. There are a lot of simple answers to our problems. More government and regulations are NOT the answer.
Its all very simple,before a president can be elected he must ,sit an intelligent test,I mean a proper test.And he must improve the economy or resign within 18 months.Lets face it you guys,just keep voting morons into power