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My visit to the fed

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eliotn Posted: Tue, Feb 10 2009 3:26 PM

Will post more later, just want to get the most important stuff down...

Basically, I visited the Fed branch in Denver.  There, I found out several things:

If we got rid of the fed, there would be chaos, since people need one currency, according to the people there.  Also, they say savings are good in the long run, but people need to spend right now!  Wait, they dodged my question, do savings or spending promote economic growth.

The inflation was caused by oil and food prices, and this deflation is now caused by decreasing prices.  Wait a second...

There were bubbles in specific industries, most notably housing and manufacturing.  Wait, how does this correlate with Keynesian economics?

The fed provides financial stability.  They make sure that the banks are behaving as they should be.

The fed serves the public, by helping the banks out, they say.

The economic "experts" cannot predict boom-bust cycles, even though austrian economists can see them years into the future.  They say it is like predicting the weather.

The fed, apparently, needs high amounts of security.

The fed has people who sit around all day maintaining the dollar bills and managing checks (although they are switching to a different system for this).  They have really expensive machines to do this work.  Wait, couldn't private industries do this?

The fed will never admit that they cause the boom-bust cycle, just mentioning that perhaps Greenspan had something to do with it.  They instead had a presentation that it was these risky mortgage-backed securities.  Which at the end (ironically) suggested people to save.

Schools are labour camps.

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eliotn replied on Tue, Feb 10 2009 7:58 PM

Tap

Schools are labour camps.

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jtermine replied on Tue, Feb 10 2009 8:09 PM

So when you to the Fed in Denver, who did you talk to? (i don't need a name)  Do they have a public relations officer?  Do they hand out educational material?  You should post the material if you got any.  It could be useful primary source material on fed propoganda.

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Jordan replied on Tue, Feb 10 2009 8:14 PM

So did you make an appointment or just walk in or what?

I would kind of like to visit one, I like seeing how central bankers/keynesians justify their policies.

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eliotn replied on Wed, Feb 11 2009 8:10 AM

jtermine:
So when you to the Fed in Denver, who did you talk to? (i don't need a name)  Do they have a public relations officer?  Do they hand out educational material?  You should post the material if you got any.  It could be useful primary source material on fed propoganda.

Basically, the public relations officer started a video showing that the fed "helps" people and that the fed is necessary for the economy.  Then, an economist went in and talked about the current crisis.  Also, the public relations officer talked about the crisis.  They also took us on a basic tour of the place.  In their discussion, I could sense the spirit of Keynes. 

Sorry, they did not hand out "Fed Propaganda".

Schools are labour camps.

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eliotn replied on Wed, Feb 11 2009 8:10 AM

Jordan:
So did you make an appointment or just walk in or what?

Actually, I went with a class on a field trip.

Schools are labour camps.

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eliotn:
Actually, I went with a class on a field trip.

 

Awesome

...And nobody has ever taught you how to live out on the street, But now you're gonna have to get used to it...

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