sc94597 said:
Why can't we let the market decide which currency is the best to use? The manipulation of the economy by the Federal Reserve (or the national banks which preceded it) isn't any better than the direct control of the means of production found in non-market socialist countries, it's just much more underlying, with economic growth being manipulated by arbitrary centralized power over interest rates. It's this, coupled with over-regulation, that is responsible for multiple bubbles we've experienced in the 70's and now. There exists very few countries without central banks today, and most of them have a de-facto central banking system (they're socialist countries that don't have a real monetary system), so the bolded makes very little sense to me. The failure of decentralized banks was a byproduct of heavy regulation on the fiscal policies these small banks were allowed to perform. In the "Free Banking Era" most banks were failing because of policies imposed by the states, not because they were naturally inelastic. There is no reason why fiscal policies shouldn't be subjected to the same market rules that the rest of the economy is exposed to. If it weren't for the heavy push for central planning in Europe (particularly Germany/England) other solutions to this inelasticity would've been implemented in the states, particularly those which freed the market further and enabled competitive currencies. If you look at the history of the federal reserve/central banks of the U.S they're rooted in the mercantilist views of Hamilton (derived from Britain's mercantilism) and then later marxist views of Europe, all of which influenced the progressives in their prime era as one of their many legsilative means to control the economy, coupled with the income tax, and the creation of the ICC and FTC. The 100 year history of the Federal Reserve (and Europe's central banks) tells us that there is more harmed done by the central banks than good. Even monetarists and (some) keynesians recognize that the Federal Reserve (and other central banks) have caused issues in economic development and growth. Question: Why is an audit of the Federal Reserve so opposed, if the Federal Reserve works for the good of the economy? |
Short answer? Because govornments are notoriously untrustworthy. The US Government is near the top of that for the OCED.
You'd never get a situation that goes on more then 10 years before Congress fucked it up.
The Feeral reserve exists, to avoid populist pandering that would only destroy the economy, advocated by polticians who can't even balance a checkbook let alone understand how the economy works.
As for your question. I'd guess an audit of the federal reserve is opposed... because it already gets audited... quite a bit. By the agencies that are supposed to audit it.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/reform_audit.htm
It's already plenty audited.....
