The progressive case for ending the fed and it has nothing to do with the gold standard.

[dameocrat67]

This is really good article by Matt Stoller.

...............Structurally, the Fed is a two-part system, with a Board of Governors in DC and Reserve Banks that sit in 12 separate regions of the country that represented roughly equivalent sectors of the economy in 1913. The Board of Governors has 7 members, each of whom can have one 14-year term, and a Chairman who has a four year term. These members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Monetary policy is set through the Federal Open Market Committee, which has members from both the board and the Reserve banks. If you ever want to see how the country is actually run, read the transcripts of FOMC meetings, which are released on a five year lag (they used to be shredded as a matter of course). It is stunning to read how Reserve bank presidents basically talk to WalMart and high-end headhunter firms to find out how their regional economy is doing, and then set monetary policy. It’s also crazy that we still do not know what the FOMC was saying from 2005 onward, during the height of the mortgage boom and bust. All of this is secret, and very much open to subpoena for some enterprising politician. (It is one of my great disappointments that neither the Democratic House or Senate tried to get these transcripts, given that we know that Alan Greenspan was muffling dissent on the housing bubble in 2004, the last released transcript.)

The Reserve Banks are quasi-public and quasi-private entities owned by member banks. The New York Fed, for instance, pays dividends to JP Morgan, and has a .org web address. The Reserve banks are governed by Boards of Directors that are drawn mostly from the banking sectors of their regions, as well as large companies and the occasional union leader or university president. The Fed also has a large research staff and funds most macro-economic monetary policy research. It is uncommon to find ‘credible’ economists in monetary policy who have no financial ties to the Federal Reserve banks. The Fed is actually one point of contention between the right-wing billionaire Koch family and the Ron Paul libertarians; the Kochs are supportive of Federal Reserve-tied scholars, and Paul’s people are not (the Palin Tea Party had no involvement in the Audit the Fed fight, the Ron Paul Tea Party was the driving force on the right for that legislation).

This structure is the result of a political compromise in its inception, a holdover from the Wall Street-populist fights of the 1890s, the financial panic of 1907, as well as legislative shifts over 90 years. It is a deeply corrupt and indefensible system rife with conflicts of interest. The Reserve banks conduct a good amount of the regulatory work in our banking system. Their boards are staffed with bank leaders, and the presidents of the Reserve banks are actually hired by these bankers. Reserve banks even pay dividends to their bank members (attention Congresscritters who want to find a pay-for!). This ‘I’m a dessert topping and a floor cleaner’ identity allows Reserve banks — particularly the NY Fed — to intimidate courts and aide its allies on Wall Street. Additionally, the Reserve banks aren’t subject to the same government policies regarding Federal wages, so they can pay higher wages and give lucrative and prestigious consulting contracts to economists. In one hearing in the 1960s, a Reserve Ba..........

http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/12/01/end-this-fed-28595/

Beyond these facts, there is no excuse for maintaining the fed in its present form other than the big tent arguments, but in my view we would be better off if the bankers and other corporatist went back to the republican party since it would deny the crazy teabaggers a political outlet, and moderate the republicans.

[phasma ex machina]

1. Banksters own the Fed. Banksters use THEIR Fed to create dollars for THEM.

Banksters use some of THEIR new dollars created by THEIR Fed to buy politicians. Bank of America, for instance, owns 419 out of 535 Senators and Representatives (link). Regulatory government epic fails because banksters can easily outbid all potential rivals by telling THEIR Fed to print more dollars for THEM to funnel to THEIR politicians who do the actual regulating.

[Hydra]

4. Right, own the currency

You own everything.

[the other one]

2. Kicking

[dameocrat67]

3. kicking

n/t

[girl gone mad]

5. k & r

The irony is that the Fed as it exists is essentially a relic of the gold standard.