The Federal Reserve-Origins and Aims

Reuters Columnist Agnes T. Crane posted an op-ed piece on next weeks 2 day meeting of Fed governors. Many if not most in America are under false impressions of what the Federal Reserve is. Major market newspapers such as NYT skillfully portray impressions of the private bank as a government agency controlling the nations economy via our currency. Those impressions are FALSE!

Ms Crane writes in today's 'Great Debate' section:
"Call it a battle for beginnings and endings, and the Federal Reserve is smack in the middle.

As Fed policymakers convene for a two-day meeting starting on Tuesday, the lines are growing more defined between those who want the Fed to do more to stimulate a still fragile economy, and those who are calling for a defined exit strategy to prevent the global economy from going into an inflation-inducing overdrive.

The rise in Treasury yields earlier this month and the quashing effect they had on mortgage lending activity also should be a reminder that the Fed needs to stay flexible when it comes to its unorthodox policies. But it’s time to show the world that it’s also ready to put aside some weapons in its arsenal when the time is right".

The literary use of imagery in describing the nations current fiscal problems and policies is intriguing. The use of war metaphors stimulates thoughts of the nature and scope of said “battles” and often inevitable collateral damage.

In the example of the CPFF the question arises: What in the, near or long term, economic picture would encourage business to reduce their need (or desire) for CPFF ‘assitance’? Fear, that continued economic stagnation will not abate unless and until this consumption driven economy has regained it’s old school ability to produce goods not simply consumers, could likely be an impetus for corporate strategy in this scenario.

With the previously unthinkable nationalization of corporate American icons now a reality, the role and relationship of our government and the Fed must be examined and redefined if this Republic we have taken for granted is to persevere.

To Quote Burke:

“It is to the property of the citizen, not to the demand of the creditor of the State, that the original faith of society is pledged. The claim of the citizen is prior in time, paramount in title, and superior in equality”

That is the real “Battle of Endings” and the Fed is in the middle.
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Greenspan on Fed's Independence:

The Coming Battle 1899: