God forbid I should be seen as defending the Fed! I oppose its policies because of class politics. The Fed makes sure the rich stay rich at the expense of working people.
All conspiracy theories start with a grain of truth. But the conspiracist complaint that the Fed is bad <because> it is owned by the banks, assumes that if it was owned totally by the government, things would change. They also imply that the problem with society is secret elites, rather than the institutions and systems of power that defend the status quo and the wealthy.
If antisemitism is the socialism of fools, then conspiracism is the worldview that fools socialists.
:-)
-Chip
----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 9:50 PM Subject: RE: Federal Reserve - private or government owned?
> Chip Berlet wrote:
>
> >Most of the rhetoric about the Federal Reserve being private originally
comes
> >from the John Birch Society and other right-wing populist groups.
>
> Well, yeah, but 1) it is half, or 40% private, and 2) it's big
> capital's personal branch of government. Conspiracism is the class
> politics of fools, but there's a truth there that shouldn't be
> dismissed.
>
> Doug