The Fed

For the economy and country to begin healing, we need capital, credibility and authority to move from the wasteful to the productive. The power elite, predictably, is attempting to achieve the exact opposite.

Personally, I am still a long-term optimist, but as a student of the Depression I know that Congress and the executive can do much damage before the long term gets here, and indeed, they can delay its arrival indefinitely.

Economic agents in general and companies in particular can only rehabilitate their finances by cutting costs (especially labor costs) and paying off loans.

It was Boetie's view that the state is the least plausible institution on earth, one that would be overthrown in a day but for propaganda and ideological error.

The Paulson Plan is one more step in the socialization of America, but it is also a great bank robbery.

"The government package is not going to rescue the economy, but it will rescue activities that the economy cannot afford and that consumers do not want."

It was credit expansion and the attempt to keep prices high that prolonged the Depression, which would otherwise have ended by 1931 or 1932. On this point Bernanke is all wet.

With the US housing crisis metamorphosing into a full-blown financial crisis in the United States and Europe and the specter of a global stagflation looming larger every day, the Fed's credibility and reputation is evaporating with the value of the US dollar.

Some investors have come to believe that, whatever mistake they make, they have a right to their profits, and the authorities will enforce it. The rescue of Bear Stearns, the two GSEs and AIG will only fuel this belief.

The Fed is essentially a giant counterfeiting machine. That would be criminal for you, but is legal for JPMorgan's men under the Federal Reserve Act written by the big bankers.