Disparate Voices … One Theme

Here are some voices, past and present, that all appear to be making similar points:

• central banks are not omniscient and therefore should not be omnipotent ... they are not gods ...
• they are not even masters of the natural cycles of human commerce and economy …
• they are servants charged with observing the laws [God ordained and man made] … by promoting just weights and measures … demanded by God and enabled by human laws ...
• and as such they should desist from [or be forced to cease] their misguided [and illegal], destabilizing [even disastrous] and increasingly [even absolutely] tyrannical financial manipulation of economic life on the planet.

But, as a practical matter, how does any society prevent the undesirable behavior and devastating results these voices appear to be condemning? The answer is clear ... central banks [like everyone else in a society] must be subject" to enforceable and enforced laws [rules] which actually limit their power ... for unlimited power, if it is to be used safely, belongs only to the all knowing ... which does not include any person or human institution.

It is time to demand that the FED obey the laws ... starting with the Federal Reserve Act under which it exists ... because the FED is not omniscient and therefore should not be omnipotent.

A President

In his charge to Congress endorsing passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, President Wilson foresaw both the possibility of a central bank serving commerce under strict monetary laws ... and the hazard of a central bank attempting to rule the economy by taking unfettered control of the currency:

“The principles upon which we should act are also clear.

• We must have a currency … responsive to sound credit, the expanding and contracting credits of everyday transactions, the normal ebb and flow of personal and corporate dealings.
• Our banking laws must mobilize reserves; must not permit the concentration anywhere in a few hands of the monetary resources of the country or their use for speculative purposes in such volume as to hinder or impede or stand in the way of other more legitimate, more fruitful uses.
• And the control of the system of banking and of issue which our new laws are to set up must be public, not private, must be vested in the Government itself, so that the banks may be the instruments, not the masters, of business and of individual enterprise and initiative.”

A Pope

In his 2013 [100 years after Wilson’s remarks] EVANGELII GAUDIUM, I.57, Pope Francis said quite simply but clearly  “No to a financial system which rules rather than serves [the real economy which consists of and belongs to the real people].”

An Imam

In August 2015,  leaders of Islam worldwide made a declaration that

… affirmed

[The Lord]  raised the heaven and established the balance

So that you would not transgress the balance.

Give just weight – do not skimp in the balance.

So set your face firmly towards the (natural) Way

As a pure, natural believer

Allah’s natural pattern on which He made mankind

There is no changing Allah’s creation.

That is the true (natural) Way

But most people do not know it.

… recognized

• The corruption that humans have caused on the Earth due to our relentless pursuit of economic growth and consumption.

... called on the well-off nations and oil-producing states to 

•  Recognize the moral obligation to reduce consumption so that the poor may benefit from what is left of the earth’s non-renewable resources.

… called on the people of all nations and their leaders to

• Realize that to chase after unlimited economic growth in a planet that is finite and already overloaded is not viable. Growth must be pursued wisely and in moderation; placing a priority on increasing the resilience of all, and especially the most vulnerable
• Set in motion a fresh model of wellbeing, based on an alternative to the current financial model which depletes resources, degrades the environment, and deepens inequality.

… called upon corporations, finance, and the business sector to

• Change from the current business model which is based on an unsustainable escalating economy, and to adopt a circular economy that is wholly sustainable.

A Central Banker

And now the Fed itself, in its Current Federal Reserve Policy Under the Lens of Economic History:A Review Essay, is making what seems like the beginning of an attempt to disavow its deadly past and to lay the foundation for a “regime change” by suddenly discovering that the underlying rationale for and the unanticipated consequences of its extreme manipulation of money and credit aggregates without regard for actual production are troubling:

• “Evidence in support of Bernanke’s view of the channels through which QE works is at best mixed …. All of this research is problematic … Further there is no work, to my knowledge, that establishes a link from QE to the ultimate goals of the Fed …”

 

Too Little Too Late ?

Of course, everyone knows intuitively that ... the central bank emperors are naked ... and that the financial idols they have set up ... at which the banks and multinational corporations of the world worship ... MUST be torn down intentionally before they collapse on us without further warning ... and that either way the change is going to be very painful ... but if undertaken voluntarily according to strict laws, there is at least a chance of keeping our vision during the transition ... while if we wait for the inevitable collapse, the resulting panic will insure the complete destruction of any remaining free economy ... by an economic usurpation the likes of which the world is yet to see ... and the lies of which the world will almost certainly believe in its moment of despair.