Jul 272012
 
 July 27, 2012  Posted by at 7:32 pm Finance

Sometimes it helps to get back to the basics, which, in the context of debt-based money, is the fact that the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned central bank that exists in contravention of the U.S. Constitution, pursues illegal policies and is completely unaccountable to the people. In fact, it is more unaccountable to the people than the White House, Supreme Court or any other public insitution of the United States. The following is a re-post of an article I wrote in November of 2010. While we speculate about QE, no QE, a little QE, a lot of QE, etc., we also need to remember what the foundations of this obscenely powerful and destructive institution really are.

No matter what policies the Fed decides to pursue in upcoming months, we can rest assured that those policies will continue to act as a drain on any remaining productive aspects of our society and as a wealth siphon for the financial elites. This post will also set the stage for an article by a guest contributor that will delve into some of the finer aspects of the Fed’s monetary operations, which should be posted within a few days. There have been A LOT of very interesting quotes about the Fed over the years, but here’s one of my favorites:

“We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.” -Congressman Louis T. McFadden in 1932 (Rep. Pa)


Plutocracy Now

We could write stacks of books on the prevalence of money in politics and the swarms of lobbyists who descend on Washington every single week, and many people have, but it’s simpler to just focus on the most egregious example of corruption. The most powerful, influential economic policy-making institution in the country, the Federal Reserve (“Fed”), is an unelected body that is completely unaccountable to the people. Well, let’s back up and start with the fact that this institution’s very existence is most likely unconstitutional. Here’s why:

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution states that Congress has the power to “coin money” and “regulate the value thereof”. The Supreme Court has long held that Congress can delegate its legislative powers to Executive agencies as long as it provides an “intelligible principle” to guide the agencies’ action.

We don’t even have to reach the question of whether the Federal Reserve Act sets out an “intelligible principle”, however, because existing precedent states that Congress cannot delegate its powers to private institutions. Schecter Poultry (held “a delegation of its legislative authority to trade or industrial associations…would be utterly inconsistent with the constitutional prerogatives and duties of Congress“). In that case, the Supreme Court struck down parts of FDR’s National Industrial Recovery Act which authorized these private organizations to draft “codes of fair competition” and submit them to the President for approval.

The Fed, by it’s own admission, is an independent entity within the government “having both public purposes, and private aspects”. By “private aspects”, they mean the entire operation is wholly-owned by private member banks, who are paid dividends of 6% each year on their stock. Furthermore, the Fed’s decisions “do not have to be ratified by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branch of government” and the Fed “does not receive funding appropriated by Congress”.

In 1982, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed this view when it held that “federal reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities… but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations. [The Legality of the Federal Reserve System, 5]. Yet, the Fed has exclusive control over the government’s ability to create money and regulate its value through the targeting of interest rates and open market operations (when the Fed buys and sells debt-assets in the market through its primary dealer banks). How Congress can delegate its Constitutional powers to this independent, privately owned and unaccountable institution is beyond me.

Still, the Constitutional issue is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this twisted institution’s embodiment of all things undemocratic. When Congress (and the people it represents) makes a valid delegation of its powers to an executive agency, it almost always retains a level of control through its powers of appropriations, impeachment and oversight. For some not-so-strange reason, the Fed isn’t appropriated any funds by Congress, and so it cannot be financially “starved” like any other agency.

The members of the Fed’s Board of Governors also cannot be impeached by Congress, which is especially twisted, since the President of the United States can be impeached for “high crimes and misdameanors”. [The Legality of the Federal Reserve System, 8]. What about oversight? Well, a Congressional committee holds “hearings” every once in awhile to ask the Chairman a few irrelevant questions, but if this process is what passes for “oversight”, then we have truly gone off the deep end.

Speaking of committees and oversight, when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testified under oath to Congress in July, he said in no uncertain words, “the Federal Reserve will not monetize the [federal] debt”. [1]. Fast forward to the day after mid-term elections, in which the American people clearly voted for LESS spending/printing, and the Fed announces its plan to monetize $900 billion in treasury bonds. [2].

The Chairman has proven his previous testimony before Congress to be a blatant lie, but instead of condemning the Fed’s recent actions, the federal government has welcomed it with open arms. That’s quite some oversight we have there. Perhaps the best way to oversee the Fed’s actions would be to actually figure out what in Lloyd Blankfein’s name it’s been doing.

In this country, that’s easier said than done. The Government Accountability Office is not allowed to audit the Fed’s transactions for or with foreign governments, central banks, nonprivate international organizations or those made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee (“FOMC”). It just so happens that these are the types of transactions which are most influential on global and domestic financial markets, especially the open market operations.

These operations are conducted by the FOMC, who is comprised of the Board of Governors (7 members appointed by President and confirmed by Senate) and five representatives from the regional Fed Banks. Although the President appoints the Board of Governors, he must choose from a list of candidates provided by private institutions, and the other five representatives are also typically nominated by private member banks. Talk about an organization with conflicts of interest, lack of transparency and lack of accountability all tightly woven into its very fabric!

In the last two years, the almighty Fed has printed trillions of dollars in our name to buy worthless mortgage assets from “too big to fail” banks. It has lent these banks our hard-earned money at about 0% interest, so they could lend our own money back to us at 3%+. These banks also used our free money to ramp equity and commodity markets, which mostly benefitted the top 1% of our population who owns 43% of financial wealth [3], and conveniently, also owns the Fed.

The latter has kept interest rates at next to nothing to punish savers and encourage speculation, making everything less affordable for average Americans who have seen their wages stay the same, decrease or disappear. What’s left standing is the perniciously powerful, highly secretive and entirely unaccountable Fed, who now epitomizes the state of American democracy.

We have all become subject to the misguided and/or malicious whims of a few wealthy individuals operating the levers of economic policy, with no adequate means of challenging their power. Our most treasured contribution to political society has been reduced to a bunch of meaningless articles and amendments, containing equally meaningless words. We the people, in our pursuit of “a more perfect union”, have fallen into an age-old trap.

Our economic policies, currency and laws are all manufactured by our very own private dictator, who amasses a fortune from our collective exploitation and destruction. Then, this despot continues to operate like nothing ever happened. We can scream “ABOLISH THE FED” all day, non-stop to every single politician at the top of our lungs, but it will never happen.

The reality is that there is only one way back to a true democratic system now, and this path will require nothing less of us than the courage of our forefathers.

Home Forums Plutocracy Now: Why the Fed is Unconstitutional

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  • #8457
    ashvin
    Participant

    Sometimes it helps to get back to the basics, which, in the context of debt-based money, is the fact that the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned cen
    [See the full post at: Plutocracy Now: Why the Fed is Unconstitutional]

    #4878
    hcp6791
    Member

    This article, especially your last thought, is inspiring. Thank you.

    #4896
    Golden Oxen
    Participant

    The fiat money pictured in your article is unconstitutional as well.

    #4934
    Supergravity
    Participant

    Better dead than FED.

    “How Congress can delegate its Constitutional powers to this independent, privately owned and unaccountable institution is beyond me.”

    Congress cannot lawfully do so, without such an act being defined as contempt of congressional office and/or seditious conspiracy; in opposing by force of law their own mandated authority to coin money in contravention to their constitutional duty.
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384

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