What Would Our Founding Fathers Have Thought About Today's Federal Reserve?

I frequently check in with Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin, published almost every Friday throughout the year. You could do worse in finding valuable free resources on the internet. What makes Noland's free advice valuable is this: he thinks; he uses his reason; and you can see that thought process and the use of reason at work in each column. While some of what he writes can be a bit technical, if you just slow down and read it carefully, looking up that which you don't understand, you'll come away with a better understanding of what's going on in our economy and financial markets. It's as simple as that.

Last Friday, in addition to his usual informative analysis, he finished up his column with these valuable insights about the government's shutdown and what our Founding Father might have thought about today's Federal Reserve. I couldn't agree more, so I wanted to share this with you and encourage you to read the whole column when you have a few minutes.

Our great nation’s brilliant Founding Fathers clearly appreciated the perils of unsound money. They understood the dangers of excessive power and the necessity for checks and balances. They would have never anticipated an American central bank printing money without restraint. There was a major flaw in the structure of the Federal Reserve System – and for central bank structures generally. I just don’t think anyone ever anticipated that central bankers might someday resort to creating Trillions of “money” as they do today – on a whim or academic theory. The Federal Reserve needs some basic concrete rules. It’s insanity to allow a small group of unelected officials the discretion to pump $85bn – or more! - of purchasing power into the markets every month. It’s undemocratic, highly risky and this has gone on for much too long. If there was one issue worth closing down the government and risking default, this would be it.

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