The Fed

How capitalism came to mean big profits but not big losses. 

A world central bank and currency can only further destabilize the global economy. 

Yet the biggest obstacle to a gold standard, as always, is intellectual. What these Congressmen need is a good monetary education. Four objections invariably crop up when the subject of gold is raised. Here they are, with some short answers.

It's a myth that the Federal Reserve is independent of politics. It's a lie so brazen, in fact, that it's fit only for Fed press releases. Every administration, to take just one example, tries to get the Fed chairman to time monetary policy so as to insure its reelection.

The Federal Reserve is the most powerful yet least questioned of all Washington institutions. It can make or break elections, bail out entire governments, send the stock market to the stratosphere, or bankrupt whole industries. Yet it operates with less oversight than the CIA.

The economy is again teetering on the brink of recession, and everyone's calling on the Fed to do something—anything!—to prevent another economic slump. But while the Fed has mastered the art of messing up the economy, it doesn't have the ability to stop the bad consequences of its own manipulative actions.

Murray Rothbard begins this outstanding book by calling attention to a paradox.

Four in five Americans opposed the $50 billion Mexican bailout, but they were powerless to stop it. When the central bank says it's in charge—as it does in every financial upheaval of this magnitude—we are supposed to hold our tongues and leave it to the experts, even if their actions generate only uncertainty and volatility.

Richard Nixon thought that going off the gold standard would be good for himself politically. But his reckless action made possible, even inevitable, the explosive expansion of government spending, debt, and intervention that followed.