patrick.net

richwicks says

Federal Income tax is used to pay interest on the debt.

They (the Federal Reserve) make money out of thin air and loan it to the banks at low interest. so the money must be repaid with interest but there is only the money, not the interest.

When money was real, the only way to increase the money supply was to mine more of it.

Onvacation says

richwicks says

Federal Income tax is used to pay interest on the debt.

They (the Federal Reserve) make money out of thin air and loan it to the banks at low interest. so the money must be repaid with interest but there is only the money, not the interest.

When money was real, the only way to increase the money supply was to mine more of it.

The reason that inflation was set as a goal to be 2% when the Federal Reserve was formed, is that SUPPOSEDLY that was the percentage of gold mined every year.

The Fed is our real rulers, and I KNOW people think that's crazy, but it's the damned truth, and I'm tired of being expected to lie. You spend years looking into this shit, you hear it explained to you in excruciating detail, and some dummy who has spent no effort to ever think, and has never investigated it a bit, thinks you're crazy.

@Onvacation - BTW - do you teach the Rust programming language? Somebody convinced me to get into it, it's really not terrible which I can't say about many languages.

richwicks says

The Fed is our real rulers

I agree. A monopoly on money is really control over everything.

Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!

Attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812). No primary source for this is known and the earliest attribution to him known is 1935 (Money Creators, Gertrude M. Coogan). Before that, "Let us control the money of a nation, and we care not who makes its laws" was said to be a "maxim" of the House of Rothschilds, or, even more vaguely, of the "money lenders of the Old World". This is a play on an English proverb, Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.

Right now the Fed balance sheet shows $8.9 trillion. It peaked about $90 million more than that as the Fed has reduced its balance sheet by $90 million due to quantitative tightening (QT).

That balance sheet was at $1 trillion in 2007.

At the end of Obama's presidency, it was $4.5 trillion, and $3.8 trillion in early 2020.

From what I’ve read and heard, for every 1% increase in the 30 year mortgage rate, there is a 10% drop in price.

The Fed Funds rate sits around 2.5% and from what I’ve observed, the 30 year mortgage rate historically is about 2% greater than the Fed Funds rate. It peaked between 2009 to 2022 to about 2.75% back in 2018.

The mortgage rate spiked for various reasons such as mortgage demand, etc.

The Federal Reserve likely wants to continue to increase the Fed Funds rate to at least 5% in order to generate enough margin to lower the rate when necessary, without going back to zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) like 2009 to 2016.

I just hope they can pull that off without the economy crashing and I hope the economy cannot sustain itself without ZIRP and quantitative easing.

If that is not the case, then I have some serious reservations about the quality and strength of the economy.

Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy both tried to end the Federal Reserve. It didn’t work out to well for either of them.

RandalRay says

Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy both tried to end the Federal Reserve. It didn’t work out to well for either of them.

Are you sure. I think Fed is created in 1913 whereas Lincoln died in 1865.

RandalRay says

Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy both tried to end the Federal Reserve. It didn’t work out to well for either of them.

If I can find it, I'll give you a different take on Lincoln. Basically, he was not the great liberator, the civil war really had nothing to do with slavery, and he was extremely corrupt.

Don’t get obsessed about FED for being public or “private”. All central banks are doing the same that creating money out of thin air. For many countries, this process hurts respective country. In case of fed, both us and many countries get affected as they use us$

RandalRay says

Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy both tried to end the Federal Reserve. It didn’t work out to well for either of them.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Suppressed-History-of-American-Banking/Xaviant-Haze/9781591432333

The Suppressed History of American Banking
How Big Banks Fought Jackson, Killed Lincoln, and Caused the Civil War
By Xaviant Haze

richwicks says

Lincoln. Basically, he was not the great liberator, the civil war really had nothing to do with slavery, and he was extremely corrupt.

I'd like to see that evidence.

I know Lincoln did not care much for the negros, but I did not know about his corruption.

Onvacation says

I know Lincoln did not care much for the negros,

Maybe hid did not "like" Negros, but he did not like slavery either. The charter of the Republican Party, which formed in 1850 and Lincoln led, had in it written explicitly that a main platform was the abolition of slavery.

HeadSet says

Maybe hid did not "like" Negros, but he did not like slavery either. The charter of the Republican Party, which formed in 1850 and Lincoln led, had in it written explicitly that a main platform was the abolition of slavery.

Exactly. The reason we don't have the Whigs anymore is all but wholly because of Slavery. On almost every other issue, Whiggery and Republicanism were in concord.

richwicks says

@Onvacation - BTW - do you teach the Rust programming language? Somebody convinced me to get into it, it's really not terrible which I can't say about many languages.

I picked it up recently. To me if programming languages were people Rust would be the autistic kid.

just_passing_through says

richwicks says

@Onvacation - BTW - do you teach the Rust programming language? Somebody convinced me to get into it, it's really not terrible which I can't say about many languages.

I picked it up recently. To me if programming languages were people Rust would be the autistic kid.

I'm picking up now. It seems to be extremely portable and platform independent (so far). It's nice that is has a build system included with the language itself. I've not gotten too far into it yet, but it's a lot less tedious than C so far. https://www.redox-os.org/ seems (mildly) interesting as well. Bringing a new operating system into the world is very challenging today but I think there's room for one, if it can be much smaller than Linux and more easily ported. It runs on a microkernel, which adds overhead but pffft, I don't know if that matters so much today. Everything runs in userspace, including the drivers.

The compiler error messages are well done.

Onvacation says

I'd like to see that evidence.

Here's a quick introduction to it, start at 13 minutes in:


original link

Ignore the crazy graphics and just listen.

HeadSet says

Maybe hid did not "like" Negros, but he did not like slavery either.

Lincoln's objection to slavery centered quite a bit around the idea that black people shouldn't live among white people, and he was worried about the dilution of the white race. Basically, he wanted them out of the country.

https://rudy.substack.com/p/pimco-is-a-literal-vampire-potbelly

All you have to do to suck up all the money in the world is to get tipped off by the Fed about coming rate increases or decreases.

The bond market is far larger than the stock market, and the bond market moves pretty mechanically in response to interest rate changes.

HunterTits says

Federal Reserve is what the call a 'quasi government agency'.

It is completely private, owned by foreign interests.

Misc says

but I doubt anyone will be able to point to any tax filings made by the Federal Reserve.

Of course not, the IRS didn't exist until after the current central bank was created. They are the collection and enforcement arm. Ohh, you assumed the IRS was a legitimate government agency...

Blue says

Central banks are part of the gov in every country.

Yes and the only certainty is death and taxes. The only investments are dollar denominated assets, you cannot run an economy using gold and silver, the more Federal Reserve notes we have, the richer we are(regardless of prices). You're masters have taught you well.

RandalRay says

Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy both tried to end the Federal Reserve.

Lincoln used worthless fiat to finance his war. That is the essential function of central banks. Worse, he moved power from the states to the federal government, further cementing central bank power.

Kennedy had no intention of ending the Fed. I used to think the same thing, but his silver act was actually in the Fed's best interests. See Corbett for a thorough explanation.

ad says

How Big Banks Fought Jackson, Killed Lincoln, and Caused the Civil War

Jackson assassination attempt is real, last man to revoke a central bank charter. Lincoln assassination does appear to be more than just pissed of Southerner's, Booth had some interesting ties.

HeadSet says

Maybe hid did not "like" Negros, but he did not like slavery either. The charter of the Republican Party, which formed in 1850 and Lincoln led, had in it written explicitly that a main platform was the abolition of slavery.

Lincoln has been quoted in multiple speeches saying he did not give a shit about ending slavery, only about preserving the Union. Slavery is the tale that was sold to cover the massive breach of the Constitution when secession was not allowed. It was also used to try and make Southerner's forget about Reconstruction. It failed. The south adamantly hates central government, and always will.

Slavery has existed for thousands of years, but only a hundred in the US. It still exists in Africa today. Only racists buy the slavery angle to the Civil War.

https://gettr.com/post/p1lxow70b3d

Steve Bannon: The Federal Reserve Is the Biggest Scam They Have

"0.5% of the citizens of this country own more assets than the bottom 90%. That's all happened over the last ten years since 2008."

"We don't need to audit the Fed; we need to end the Federal Reserve! The Federal Reserve has usurped its power and the power of the American people and our elected representatives. And no, they do not have the consent of the governed. We will not comply, we will not submit, and it must be ended."

The reason Ron Paul always pushed for an audit, the results would lead to it's abolishment.

https://rudy.substack.com/p/the-fed-is-government-its-much-more

Another very illuminating interview with former Fed trader Joseph Wang…

"They're definitely in their own world. The Fed does have a small army of economists. The typical Fed senior economist career path is kindergarten to PhD to the Fed, and become a Fed lifer."

"Everyone who said inflation would be transitory and contributed to these policy errors - I'm sure they all work at the Fed still, so there's really no accountability."

"The people who have a lot of influence on monetary policy and research - these people don't really have any real-world experience. They've never traded anything, they've never worked in the private sector, they've never ran anything..."

"Their experience is limited. It comes through textbooks mostly, so that's part of the reason why I think that some of the research and some of the things that come out of the Fed don't seem to make a lot of sense..."

"The incentives aren't there - ever - to do a very good job. That's kind of what happens at the Fed."

"Many smart & motivated people join & learn a ton & then they leave. The bottom line is that if you're a company that doesn't have profit or loss & can never fail, there's really no point in trying to retain people. You become a place where people sit around & collect paychecks."

"The people who eventually rise up to decision levels at the Fed, they tend to be there almost completely on the strength of tenure, whereas everyone else who could leave would go into the private sector and make a lot more money and be judged by what they can do."

"There's this huge negative selection there [at the Federal Reserve] & I think it's really concerning because the Fed is such a powerful institution, yet many of the people who make these decisions don't really seem to have the knowledge or expertise that is suitable to the job."

Gordon Johnson: "Is there a fear of inflation at the Fed, or do you think they just don't care?" Wang: "Well, they say they care a lot, but I don't know what's in their head."

“Everyone who said inflation would be transitory and contributed to these policy errors - I'm sure they all work at the Fed still, so there's really no accountability."

Without accountability, "from an incentive perspective there's no reason to really care whether or not you're doing a good job. So if we have high inflation, if we have to induce a recession to get inflation under control, that really doesn't affect anyone at the Fed." - Wang

"They'll still have their jobs. They'll still get their increases, they'll still have their guaranteed pension, so there's an incentive problem here that's not easy to solve."

https://rudy.substack.com/p/the-great-disorder

In our age of paper money with its accompanying kaleidoscope of paper, plastic, and electronic credit instruments, it is difficult to imagine an industrial society, like the German Empire before 1914, in which 52 to 65 percent of monetary circulation consisted of coinage. The daily transactions of most Germans were conducted with ten- and twenty-mark gold coins; one- to five-mark silver coins; five-, ten-, and twenty-five-pfennig nickel coins, and one- and two-pfennig copper coins. The Reichsbank, which had been assigned the task of “regulating the circulation of money in the entire territory of the Reich, facilitating currency transactions, and caring for the utilization of available capital,” viewed this dependence on coinage with increasing disapproval. The dependence on coins and even on cash transactions with paper money was proving to be an ungainly way of doing business. As international tensions mounted in the prewar years, the Reichsbank also considered the excessive circulation of coinage dangerous because it could act as an extreme brake on the Reichsbank’s ability to satisfy government liquidity requirements in the event of war. Thus, economic and military considerations went hand in hand as motives for Reichsbank policy…

By the end of 1914, the Reichsbank gold holdings reached two billion marks, but Germany’s citizens were reminded by a broadsheet that five billion in gold had been coined and that it was their “holy duty” to give their gold to the Reichsbank. The public was also reminded that “every pfennig that is cleared without the use of cash is a weapon against the economic war of annihilation conducted by our enemy.” [Note that FDR’s Executive Order 6102 banned private gold ownership and defaulted on gold certificates in 1933 - RH[

A particular effort was made to get schoolchildren to campaign among parents and their elders and thus assist in the national quest for gold. Instructive little brochures were produced with stories illustrating how bright children, properly instructed by their teachers, could extract the golden treasures hidden by shortsighted adults. Reading a brochure like “The Goldseekers at Work,” one wonders if the famed authoritarian upbringing of German children was not being sacrificed to Mammon by the Reichsbank.

It tells the story of three Gymnasium students who verbally harass a fictional elderly grain merchant, Bernhard Lehmann, into turning in his gold for paper money and perform this patriotic deed during school hours with the approval of their teacher. It had apparently become acceptable, even charming, to tell Herr Lehmann that he was a “betrayer of the Fatherland” and “unthinking” because of his reluctance to part with the precious metal…[Nothing new under the Sun - RH]

The plot thickens as Lehmann asks, “Actually, what prevents the Reichsbank from printing more money than three times its gold holdings?” but remains unconvinced when he is told that this would violate the law. He argues skeptically that, “If the law does not suffice anymore, then another will be made, as now occurs with fabulous speed. And then the Reichsbank will give out four or five times as much paper with all the advantages you mentioned also being there.” Undaunted, Schonfeld rises to the challenge, asking Lehmann if he would lend his money to someone with insufficient resources, even at a high interest rate. When Lehmann responds in the negative, his mind is prepared for the crucial lesson in the higher realms of state finance:”

You see, Herr Lehmann, that’s the way it is. And it is just that way with paper money. Why does everyone take paper just as readily as gold, although, for example, even a thousand mark bill is nothing more than a scrap of paper? Because he knows that the Reichsbank is in a position to give gold for it at any moment, because he knows that he can count on the Reich. What would happen if the Reich began to print notes without paying attention to its gold stock? It would immediately suffer a loss of confidence. The notes would no longer be accepted, especially abroad, or if accepted, then it would be like those profiteers who supply 750 marks or less worth of goods for the 1000 marks you pay them. A mark would only be worth 75 pfennig abroad or, as one would say, the mark has a low value (exchange rate). Every trading operation with foreign nations for such a state, therefore, means a huge loss. So it is with Russia now, which has frequently made a law like the one you have proposed and has printed banknotes without restraint…[Think about this passage, and then think about today’s monetary system, where no one any longer even pretends money is backed by anything except force - RH]

“As one might expect, the story ends with Lehmann cheerfully and appreciatively surrendering his hard-earned gold and the youngsters getting the next day off from school for their achievement…

Patrick says

What would happen if the Reich began to print notes without paying attention to its gold stock?

They used to pretend that all our paper dollars were backed by a vast hoard of gold in Ft Knox.Patrick says

no one any longer even pretends money is backed by anything except force

yup

https://rudy.substack.com/p/more-fun-in-the-new-world

richwicks says

@Onvacation - BTW - do you teach the Rust programming language? Somebody convinced me to get into it, it's really not terrible which I can't say about many languages.

The only interesting concept about rust is the ownership model of memory allocation, which is in between manual memory management and GC. The syntax is pretty bad and it's all in all likely too complex for modern programming. GCs have come a long way, it's doubtful this is needed except for in embedded or small hardware with limited memory use cases.

We need Friedman's algo.

The money supply for the year grows according to last year's GDP + 1%

Onvacation says

richwicks says

Lincoln. Basically, he was not the great liberator, the civil war really had nothing to do with slavery, and he was extremely corrupt.

I'd like to see that evidence.

@Onvacation

Lincoln read in the Crittenden Compromise in his inaugural speech, saying he would support that failed 13th amendment provided the South didn't withdraw from the Union.

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp

Just look for "slavery" though that. Lincoln basically wanted to remove "the negro" from the United States, he never envisioned they would be given equal rights. He was an abolitionist, because he didn't believe the negro should live among civilized men.

richwicks says

He was an abolitionist, because he didn't believe the negro should live among civilized men.

That changed when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. And it also changed with African Americans joined the Union Army.

However, Lincoln suggested before that and during his first two years as President that freed Africans could voluntarily move to Africa, Brazil, etc.

.

ad says

That changed when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. And it also changed with African Americans joined the Union Army.

However, Lincoln suggested before that and during his first two years as President that freed Africans could voluntarily move to Africa, Brazil, etc.

The EP isn't what people make it out to be. I believe there were provisions that would allow Southern States to keep their slaves. Lincoln cared about the Union(central government) at all costs. There are multiple speeches and written documents where he specifically says as much, and that he doesn't give a shit about slavery. Dude was our version of Stalin.

ad says

I just hope they can pull that off without the economy crashing and I hope the economy cannot sustain itself without ZIRP and quantitative easing.

You hope the economy cannot sustain itself without ZIRP and quantitative easing? What?

GNL says

You hope the economy cannot sustain itself without ZIRP and quantitative easing? What?

Yes, I hope the economy can sustain itself without relying on ZIRP and QE. I apologize for the incorrect wording of my original post.

When I was listening to economist talking heads on CNBC back in August 2013, they said that half of the gains in the stock market since 2009 was due to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

Notice the Fed (under Yellen) did not raise interest rates until around the second half of 2016.

GDP only grew about 1.8% annually during the Obama Administration.

Inflation only averaged approximately 2%, even with the Fed Funds rate at 0.25%.

I am not sure what would have happened to the GDP growth rate if the Fed would have raised the Fed funds rate as early as 2013.

richwicks says

The Fed is our real rulers, and I KNOW people think that'

We all know the answer; because we are obedient to the laws; if no one obeys, then no one rules. But rulers are not gonna let this go, they will make you pay. So finally, it comes down to who is holding the whip and is ready and willing to crack it on the slaves.