I find it particularly disturbing whenever I read something like this:
> Our own Fed chairman, guardian of the nation's money...custodian > of its economy...night watchman of its wealth... > How could he do such a thing? And yet he has done it. He turned a > financial bubble into an economic bubble. Not only were the prices > of financial assets ballooned to excess...so were the prices of > houses...and so were the debts of the average household. > Where does it lead? The force of a correction is equal to the > deception that preceded it. Mr. Greenspan's whopper must be > followed by a whopper of a slump. This shows almost total ignorance of the nature of the Federal Reserve and its purpose. The Federal Reserve, while it has a government charter, is a private company. Its purpose, and that of its chairman is to stabilize banks and to maximize their profits. Usually, when I inform people of this, they think I must be some sort of conspiracy nut. One only needs to read the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. It's not very long and should be required reading for every child in school. Mr. Greenspan is not the "custodian of (the nation's) economy". He is merely the public face of the Federal Reserve. The Fed makes decisions attempting to make the most money for banks, especially members of the Fed. When that corresponds with a healthy economy, as it generally does, then the Fed is doing us all a favor. Aren't we lucky? The public assumes great knowledge and omniscience must reside in institutions such as the Fed. The simple fact is that it's made up of human beings who can guess wrong and make really stupid mistakes, just like the rest of us. Tightening the money supply just as the Great Depression was descending upon us is an example of such foolishness and wrong- headedness. M. _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
