The American Free Press
October 5, 2008
The trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout plan negotiated by the White House and Congress has reinvigorated the debate about Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (HR 2755), which was introduced into Congress in June 2007.
In the halls of Congress, legislators have yet to bring Paul’s bill to the floor. It is currently languishing in the House Committee on Financial Services.
However, there has been a great deal of discussion about this landmark legislation on the Internet and in the alternative press. Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin has even made abolishing the Fed one of the top planks in his platform.
Paul’s measure, as it is now, would kill the Federal Reserve Act and would then phase out the Federal Reserve one year after the bill becomes law.
The Federal Reserve Act, passed by Congress in 1913, laid the foundation for the creation of a privately owned and controlled central bank and gave private bankers the power to control the nation’s money supply.
Nearly 100 years later, the role the central bank has played in the financial scandal has been widely reported in the mainstream. Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, once heralded as “the maestro,” has been feeling the heat for supporting the deregulation of financial institutions and flooding markets with cheap dollars.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
U.S. News & World Report had a recent commentary titled “From Enron to the Financial Crisis, With Alan Greenspan in Between” excoriating Greenspan, who as the nation’s top banker, repeatedly downplayed the risks associated with derivatives even after the collapse of Enron in 2002.
On September 27, The New York Times also hit Greenspan for his failure to watch over and regulate greedy banks. To its credit, the Times also blasted Congress for dismantling important safeguards, including the Glass-Steagall Act, which kept commercial and investment banks at a safe distance.
“Now we know that an entire ‘shadow banking system’ has grown up,” wrote the Times, “without rules or transparency, but with the ability to topple the financial system itself.”
Even the cable news shows are getting in on the game. NBC’s cable news show interviewed well-known investor Jim Rogers, who made a fortune betting on commodities markets.
“How much money does the Federal Reserve have?” asked Rogers. “I know they can run their printing presses forever, but that is not good for the world. Inflation is not good for the world. A collapsing currency is not good for the world. It means worse recession in the end. . . . I would abolish the Federal Reserve.”
Neo-conservative talk show host Glenn Beck has also assailed the Federal Reserve for its role in the financial crisis. On September 15, Beck had a lively debate about who exactly owns the Federal Reserve.
“The Federal Reserve has nothing to do with the government,” said Beck. “It’s a separate, global banking system. . . . And when everyone was meeting with our Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, I thought to myself: ‘Who the hell is representing us, the American people?”
Ron Paul financial advisor Paul Schiff responded: “The Fed got us into this mess. It drives me crazy to see Alan Greenspan on television talking about this ‘100 year flood,’ like the events that are taking place today are random and have nothing to do with his monetary policy. He blew up the bubble, and now it’s burst.”
Wall Street Journal editorial writer Steven Moore added: “And by the way, who elected Ben Bernanke? Who elected Alan Greenspan?”
Now is the time for Americans to fan the flames. Call your congressman and two senators and ask them to support Paul’s bill, which would abolish the Fed. There can be no end to these manufactured financial crises until the government gets rid of the Fed and replaces it with honest, debt-free money.
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