Performance of Federal Reserve Bank

[rightofpeople]

Please Digg!

http://digg.com/business_finance/Performance_of_Federal_Reserve_Bank

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5031/federalreserveperforman.jpg

[Sandman33]

It's performance not perfromance. Good graph. Fix the spelling and I'll forward the shit out of it.

[Zippyjuan]

The Federal reserve has nothing to do with the national debt. Congress writes the spending bills and the president signs them. They also determine the taxes and fees used to try to help pay (or not pay) for them. The debt is their fault.

Average income since 1913:
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/05/04/average-income-in-the-united-states-1913-2006/
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/avg-income-2006.jpg

[hugolp]

The Federal reserve has nothing to do with the national debt. Congress writes the spending bills and the president signs them. They also determine the taxes and fees used to try to help pay (or not pay) for them. The debt is their fault.

Oh, shut up. The Federal Reserve System and its devaluation of the dollar its what allows politicians to get so much into debt. Without the Fed there is no way they could do it. Its not only the politicians fault, the Fed is the system that allows this as well.

And the average income shows you how little you can trust CPI.

[Zippyjuan]

The Treasury finances the debt, not the Fed. You could get rid of the Fed without changing the ability of the government to run debts. It is a basic problem of spending more than you take in.

And the average income shows you how little you can trust CPI.
If you do not trust the CPI numbers then you cannot trust the second chart from the original post. Incomes do not necessarily move the same as the CPI but increasing wages do help offset some of the price increases so saying that the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power does not mean that you have to work over ten times as long to buy the same things you used to. This was my reason for posting the income graph to accompany the value of the dollar one. Each only tells part of the story. People used to have to work three times longer to purchase food than they do today- even though the prices on food are higher than they were back then. Does this mean that you have lost 90% of your purchasing power and are worse off than in 1913?

[hugolp]

The Treasury finances the debt, not the Fed. You could get rid of the Fed without changing the ability of the government to run debts. It is a basic problem of spending more than you take in.

Seriously, you like to argue. And I dont know why you are arguing because you know that without the Fed there is no way goverment could run such tremendous deficits. If it try to, the interest rates would skyrocket making it unsustainable. The Fed is part of the game and is the one enabling the goverment to get so much in the debt. Stop playing games.


If you do not trust the CPI numbers then you cannot trust the second chart from the original post. Incomes do not necessarily move the same as the CPI but increasing wages do help offset some of the price increases so saying that the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power does not mean that you have to work over ten times as long to buy the same things you used to. This was my reason for posting the income graph to accompany the value of the dollar one. Each only tells part of the story. People used to have to work three times longer to purchase food than they do today- even though the prices on food are higher than they were back then. Does this mean that you have lost 90% of your purchasing power and are worse off than in 1913?

Duh! What about savings?

[Stary Hickory]

Seriously, you like to argue. And I dont know why you are arguing because you know that without the Fed there is no way goverment could run such tremendous deficits. If it try to, the interest rates would skyrocket making it unsustainable. The Fed is part of the game and is the one enabling the goverment to get so much in the debt. Stop playing games.



Duh! What about savings?

Exactly without the FED the government would be forced to peddle bonds and DIRECTLY tax Americans. It would be a whole different ball game.

[Chester Copperpot]

ZippyJuan = Always love thy Central Bank

[Chester Copperpot]

The Treasury finances the debt, not the Fed. You could get rid of the Fed without changing the ability of the government to run debts. It is a basic problem of spending more than you take in.

If you do not trust the CPI numbers then you cannot trust the second chart from the original post. Incomes do not necessarily move the same as the CPI but increasing wages do help offset some of the price increases so saying that the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power does not mean that you have to work over ten times as long to buy the same things you used to. This was my reason for posting the income graph to accompany the value of the dollar one. Each only tells part of the story. People used to have to work three times longer to purchase food than they do today- even though the prices on food are higher than they were back then. Does this mean that you have lost 90% of your purchasing power and are worse off than in 1913?

I guess Zip.. that the government could simply print up its own money and pay off the national debt right?? Nope.. they wont accept US Notes to pay off public debt.

Tell Rockefeller you deserve a raise for all the pro-fed lobbying you do here.

[Zippyjuan]

Exactly without the FED the government would be forced to peddle bonds and DIRECTLY tax Americans. It would be a whole different ball game.

That is what happens now. The Treasury sells securities at public auctions to finance the debt.

Was there no inflation before the Fed?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/US_Historical_Inflation_Ancient.svg/800px-US_Historical_Inflation_Ancient.svg.png

Were there no budget deficits prior to the Fed?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

The United States has, at times, had public debt since its inception. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation led to the first yearly reported value of $75,463,476.52 on January 1, 1791. Over the following 45 years, the debt grew, briefly contracted to zero on January 8, 1835 under President Andrew Jackson but then quickly grew into the millions again.[9]

The first dramatic growth spurt of the debt occurred because of the Civil War. The debt was just $65 million in 1860, but passed $1 billion in 1863 and had reached $2.7 billion following the war. The debt slowly fluctuated for the rest of the century, finally growing steadily in the 1910s and early 1920s to roughly $22 billion as the country paid for involvement in World War I.[9]

The buildup and involvement in World War II brought the debt up another order of magnitude from $51 billion in 1940 to $260 billion following the war. After this period, the debt's growth closely matched the rate of inflation until the 1980s, when it again began to increase rapidly. The debt quadrupled during the Reagan and Bush presidencies, declined slightly during the Clinton presidency, and more recently the debt doubled during the George W. Bush presidency, and is projected to double again under the Obama presidency to a level numerically equal to GDP.



Will either of these go away if you get rid of the Fed? No. Yes, the budget and deficits today are crazy and out of control but getting rid of the Fed is not a cure for that. It will not stop the excessive spending going on. Has the Fed expanded is powers more than they should? Again, I agree with that one as well. I think the Fed should stick to trying to control inflation and let the market take care of everything else.

[hugolp]

Will either of these go away if you get rid of the Fed? No. Yes, the budget and deficits today are crazy and out of control but getting rid of the Fed is not a cure for that. It will not stop the excessive spending going on. Has the Fed expanded is powers more than they should? Again, I agree with that one as well. I think the Fed should stick to trying to control inflation and let the market take care of everything else.

Stop talking nonsense. The Fed does not control inflation, the Fed creates the inflation.

EDIT: And as far as the debt goes, as long as the Fed is there, the debt can not be repaid. If it were there would be almost no money.