Federal Reserve Archives - David Westerfield

From Wikipedia: “Kleptocracy is a term applied to a government subject to control fraud that takes advantage of governmental corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats), via the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service. The term means “rule by thieves”. Not an official form of government such as a democracy, republic, monarchy, or theocracy; a kleptocracy is rather a pejorative for a government perceived to have a particularly severe and systemic problem with the selfish misappropriation of public funds by those in power.”

Max Keiser describes it quite well in his usual over-the-top rhetoric in this edition of the Keiser Report. Hilarious … and not, all at the same time.

The Breakdown Draws Near – Chris Martenson

One Federal Reserve Chief Gets It

By David Westerfield

On April 7, 2010

In Economics, Video

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read this. A Federal Reserve senior official, Thomas Hoenig, said this today: “I am confident that holding rates down at artificially low levels over extended periods encourages bubbles, because it encourages debt over equity and consumption over savings.” Whaa?? Someone in the Fed who actually understands the root cause of all of our economic woes and votes for policy against the system? I didn’t know such a person existed in the Fed. He is certainly in the minority, especially with the likes of former Fed Chief Alan Greenspan making remarks recently indicating he had little to do with any sort of macro-bubbles or creating any problems, a notion that Peter Schiff fiercely counters:

Bernanke Testimony from Today – Stonewall Jackson

By David Westerfield

On July 21, 2009

In Economics, Video

As it was said on the Naked Capitalism blog entry pertaining to this testimony, “Bernanke basically stonewalls and refuses to offer reasonable explanations. Not sure if he is treating the Congress as stupid or not entitled to know, but he backs himself into a real whopper with his non-defense defense (see 2:55 to 3:20).”

In answer to the Congressman’s question about who gave the Federal Reserve the authority to lend a half a trillion dollars to foreigners, Bernanke responds that it was enacted in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Basically what he’s saying is we can do what we want, lend money to whomever we please, and all this without any true approval from the Senate, which is exactly what has been happening since the fall and even before that.

Basically, when you get down to it, if you are of the persuasion that we’ve just recently lost our economic rights, you’re mistaken. We lost those rights almost a century ago through the groundwork that was laid in the Federal Reserve Act. It gave power to this super bank, or Bank of banks, who could then later use that power in any way it deemed fit. Bernanke’s rebuttals make that clear. They are acting without the authority of the people, in contradiction of the Constitution.