On Oct 7, 2011, at 10:23 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Oct 7, 2011, at 10:08 AM, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
>> what is this obsession with the fed some of these folks have? could
>> someone give my lazy ass an executive summary?
>
> ... It's a fairly opaque institution that does work for the big
> guys. But it's not their puppet - a friend who spent many years at
> the NY Fed once told me that within the institution, the thinking is
> that bankers come and go but they have to do the long-term thinking
> for the ruling class...Also, the right hates central banks because
> they're state regulators of money. They much prefer gold, which is
> stateless and automatic - and painfully austere...
The issue is democracy. The Fed is an opaque instrument of unaccountable ruling-class control. The proper slogan is to *nationalize* the Fed and make it totally transparent and controlled by elected representatives of the people. Something all populists, even those on the right intelligent enough to recognize the sheer impracticability of a gold standard in the modern world, should be glad to support.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos