No we do not need the Federal Reserve. A central bank is important if we want to continue our way of debt as money. But that central bank should not be a private entity. Canada is a good example, they have a central bank but it is state run. When we borrow money from the Fed we have to pay back interest. If it was a state run central bank we could borrow money WITHOUT interest. It's really quite simple. It's the biggest scam ever.

Note, the federal reserve is as federal as Federal Express.

“The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit…. In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value…. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the “hidden” confiscation of wealth…. [Gold] stands as a protector of property rights.” -Alan Greenspan

 

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http://www.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul/dp/B004IEA4DM/

http://youtu.be/lXb-LrVkuwM

I agree with Paul about ending the private cartel Federal Reserve company. I disagree with him about reverting to a gold standard, I like Bill Stills solution there, we can create sovereign money just like we did under Lincoln. (see second link for full explanation)

Anyone wanting to abolish it needs to present a better idea... screaming about its flaws and then suggesting we revert to the gold standard is just throwing out decades of change without even learning/growing from it.

It has to be independent from the government composed of very smart people... that is the only way it will work. If you bring it under the control of the government you are letting people like the tea party (insert any political ideologist) mess around with our future.

Tons of research that shows you cannot really have a successful anything when it is controlled by Congress... look at the post office.

 

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All we need is gold we don't need anything else.

Dammit, this thread is WAY too rational. Where's the poo-flinging I was hoping for?!

 

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I hear Tide is a pretty popular black market currency these days. Maybe a switch to the Tide standard would help?

 

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It wasn;t the worst depression as the economy began to recover 2 years after the crash.


What you had from 1830 on under the management of Biddle who was chief of the 2nd National Bank was a doubling of the money supply w/o the specie ( gold) to back it up as tinder ready to be lit.

What started the crash I quote from Rothbard

What, then, was the precipitating factor in triggering the panic of 1837? Temin plausibly argues that the Bank of England, worried about inflation in Britain, and the consequent outflow of gold, tightened the money supply and raised interest rates in the latter half of 1836. As a result, credit contraction severely restricted the American cotton export trade in London, exports declined, cotton prices fell, capital flowed into England, and contractionist pressure was put upon American trade and the American banks. Banks throughout the United States—including the Bank of the United States—promptly suspended specie payments in May 1837, their notes depreciated at varying rates, and interregional trade within the country was crippled.

While banks were able to evade specie payments and continue operations, they were still obliged to contract credit in
order to go back on specie eventually, since they could not hope to be creating fiat money indefinitely and be allowed to remain in business. Finally, the New York banks were compelled by law to resume paying their contractual obligations, and the other banks followed in the fall of 1838. During the year 1837, the money supply fell from $276 million to $232 million, a large drop of 15.6 percent in one year.


Total specie in the country continued to increase in 1837, up to $88 million, but growing public distrust of the banks (reflected in an increase in the proportion of money held as specie from 13 percent to 23 percent) put enough pressure upon the banks to force the contraction. The banks’ reserve ratio rose from 0.16 to 0.20. In response to the monetary contraction, wholesale prices fell precipitately, by over 30 percent in seven months, declining from 131 in February 1837 to 98 in September of that year.


In 1838 the economy revived. Britain resumed easy credit that year, cotton prices rose, and a short-lived boomlet began.
Public confidence in the banks unwisely returned as they resumed specie payment, and as a result, the money supply
rose slightly during the year, and prices rose by 25 percent, increasing from 98 in September 1837 to 125 in February 1839.

 

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The Federal Reserve is not needed becuase it is illegal. Government only has the authority to coin ( not print) money and determine the weights and measures of said coins.

That's it, it does not have the authority to set interest rates, or to mandate to the people what currencies they can or cannot use.

 

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There's some of that crazy I was looking for! Thanks, bro.

One can make a case against the fed being a *good idea*, but it is clearly legal. Not everything that's legal is a good idea, and not everything that's a bad idea is illegal.

 

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