I think the fed holds about $4T in government bonds, so you are looking at a 2% annual return. 10 year treasuries were less than that when Obama switched from 30 year bonds to 10 year bonds to contain the federal debt during QE as bonds renewed, so there is a modest profit for Uncle Obama in the end currently it would seem. I would assume that as rates rise, the payback will rise as well. Interesting implications though I had not really thought out to this end before.
A central banking system is as you say vital to the viability of any modern nation's economy. The central bank must have certain powers yet it also needs to be insolated from partisan politics.
As I recall the Federal Reserve was created by Congress by virtue of passing the Federal Reserve Act. I am no Constitutional scolar but I do not believe that the Trumpeizda has the legal right to dissolve the Fed.
That would mean we would revert to being crucified on a cross of gold. We also would make Russia the richest country on earth since they have the biggest gold reserves on the planet. Is this you plan to make Russia great again?
An audit is possible, an abolition is not. Trump can't do (*)(*)(*)(*) without Congress, and abolish lot on the GOP side aren't anything even resembling fiscal conservatives.
What happens to the stock market when we shut it down? Will it soar or become worthless? How about home values? Will insurance policies and annuities have any value? It is so EZ to say shut it down!! But what happens next?
Right, not sustainable, only took us through about 70 years and made us the most prosperous nation on Earth. Oh, and it's used by just about every other nation there is too. In any case, all money is fiat money, the government says what is money, even if it's also a commodity
Just based on that alone, or things like that, gives me hope for his presidency. Can you imagine Obama or Hillary wanting to audit the Fed? Or even mentioning the idea? Impossible. He's a man of extremes.
70 years? Compare that to the past empires that lasted for centuries.... Gold isn't just a commodity. Gold is gold.
Yep, it was created in part so we wouldn't be at the mercy of transients that could cause another great depression. Were it not for currency manipulation, we would surely be in the depths of a 25-year global depression right now.
True.... President Donald Trump will be discussing that option with some very bright people who will know how this could be done without alarming the major or minor players on Wall Street.
Very helpful information...... Up here in Canada our situation was brilliantly summarized by NDP leader Jack Layton, who I quote in the opening post here: http://www.politicalforum.com/canad...tional-leader-canadas-conservative-party.html Dennis Tate for National Leader of Canada's Conservative Party. Oh Canada Movie 6 - Banking - 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1HfKIvmZGU
I don't know what will happen with the economy that is quite suited and ran with Federal reserve then suddenly change into a gold based system, we are talking trillions of dollars. Do we have the gold reserve required to dampen the tumultuous, challenging and unpredictable roller coaster movement of the economy nowadays?
Essentially foreign trade/investment is where this becomes the biggest day to day problem. There isn't enough physical gold to fund modern global commerce.
Dennis, I know you shoed me this thread topic because you wanted to hear my input, but I must say I don't know enough about such things to comment on this. The only idea I had was that if the Federal Reserve get's us, though the bond system, into a circle of debt that is expected to be paid off with taxes, but that never seems to be enough, that the way to get out of debt would seem to be to tax people heavily with a 25% tax on income, let's call it a debt tax, to get debt free while using our current system. I don't know enough to comment about switching to other systems of finance.
Dennis, I was talking to my mom and it turns out we aren't in debt because of our federal reserve system. We're in debt because of deficit spending.
There needs to be another option: "No: As bad as the fed is, it's better than congress issuing currency because they've inflated it into worthlessness in a matter of years(sometimes months) every time they've printed money."
True..... but I believe that there is far more to it...... the very fact that President Abraham Lincoln was able to save USA taxpayers over FOUR BILLION dollars in interest payments....... ... means that the system is geared toward certain objectives that most American citizens would not be entirely in agreement with...... for example breaking unions. Only about five percent of Americans..... or much less.. would agree with that objective. http://www.michaeljournal.org/articles/politics/item/abraham-lincoln-and-john-f-kennedy ..... ......
Dennis the government could confiscate 12% of the value of all bank accounts to help pay for the debt. It would only work once because then everyone will pull their money out of the bank.
Deckel..... I just got an update on this from an amazingly well informed..... and patient economist! Chris Brown: Deckel..... I want to apologize for the statements that I made in the past that are probably substantially inaccurate...... because I just didn't understand this topic well enough. I just listened to an interview by Chris on all this that was really helpful. https://www.facebook.com/RealProgressive/videos/1729521777377245/?__mref=message RealProgressives videos.
OK. I'm impressed! https://oig.federalreserve.gov/reports/board-financial-statements-2014-2013-mar2015.pdf
This is a common and understandable mistake. The interest paid on US Federal Debt isn't paid to the Fed, rather it's paid to those that hold bonds as Dennis is pointed out. It's held by anyone that wants to purchase a bond. Today the Fed hold about 15% of all US bonds, but remember that when the Fed earns interest on that, it repays 94% of all the money it makes back to the US Treasury. The rest is used to fund its operations. Just like the US Post Office uses it's proceeds to fund it's activities. Of course some of that is used to pay salaries and pay dividends. But it's important to remember that those dividends are fixed and don't earn more because the Fed earns more interest. The next question is, where does the money come from in order to repay the debt