Come Home, America – Piggington's Econo-Almanac

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May 6, 2009 at 1:11 PM #15617

jpinpb
Participant

I was listening to this interview and I thought it was very interesting, wanted to share it w/the Piggs.

Come home America

He covers a lot and it’s lengthy so I won’t post it all here, but worth a listen if you have an hour or so (I was driving so captured audience)

He talks about the economy, politics, government policy, the Fed, etc.

One part that I’ll post:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Who does the Federal Reserve Bank work for? Is it a central bank of the American people, or is it a vehicle for the bankers themselves?

WILLIAM GREIDER: It’s a little of both. It is a central bank. And I know there’s a lot of argument that people make about whether the Fed is public or private, but believe me, trust me—I wrote a long book about the Fed twenty years ago—it’s an arm of government. It is cloistered in what I regard as an illegitimate way, literally protected from political accountability by the way it was set up. And that was supposed to keep the unruly masses from pushing it around and getting inflation and doing bad things like low interest rates and easy credit.

But the truth is, it has always, from the beginning in 1913, been very close to these same folks, the largest, most influential, most powerful financial institutions. And it’s, I say, a central culprit, alongside those private institutions, in causing our present disaster. And it’s a long story of how it did that, but to put it crudely, instead of being a balance wheel that serves labor and capital, more or less in moderation on both sides, it tipped the balance of policy hard in favor of capital and against labor. It literally suppressed wages, while it cut loose regulation and allowed these firms to do all of the so-called modernization which have led to this disaster.

So, if we have a genuine new politics, and it’s not clear whether we will or not, but if we do, I think at the top of the agenda should be a deep, critical look at the nature of the Federal Reserve—how it functions, who it works for, who it ignores—and a deep reform of that institution.

AMY GOODMAN: Timothy Geithner came out of—well, he was head of the New York Federal Reserve. Explain the significance of that and where he is today and the kind of policies he’s formulating.

WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, I saw one of your New York newspapers the other day called him “the Wall Street poodle” or something really nasty, which I think is not inaccurate. I mean, he was at the New York Fed, perfectly earnest and bright and all those good things, but he never took on these big banks when he saw and, in fact, publicly worried now and then about derivatives and all these other excesses. But he never used his power as a regulator to call them in and say, “Look, we’ve got to clean up this mess before it explodes on us.”

Then, after it does explode, and we lose Bear Stearns and Lehman and a bunch of others, he has been in the room every time these deals were made, which is, “We’ll take Fed money, Treasury money. We’ll give you—we’ll finance your losses and keep you whole.” And that’s his mentality. I sort of tried to hold off making it a personal critique, but it’s unavoidable. His view is, and I fear it’s now shared by the President, that we will spend the public money to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. That’s literally what they’re doing. It sounds corny, but it’s true. And first of all, that’s wrong. But secondly, they will fail.

May 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM #394022

Arraya
Participant

The Fed is an odd entity. It falls under the “federal instrumentality” umbrella. Mostly for taxation purposes. It is legally a corporation with private shareholders and it is for profit, granted a portion of the profits go back to the Treasury. Though, as Greider says “literally protected from political accountability”. My question is why the facade? Either, legally give it accountability or make it fully private bank. We can’t see it’s books and it’s members come from the private sector anyway, (cough) Goldman Sachs. As well as own stakes in it. So, lets just call it private and cut the bullshit.

The big story in the news that goes unnoticed, for some reason, is the fight going on in congress to see the Feds books. This is a big story, IMO.

Think about it for a second. A supposed federal agency is refusing to let us know where are money is. Because, “there could be severe consequences to the economy”? Ok, dude, hand over the books…

It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNX4ZbLkEXtA

Sanders, in a statement after the hearing, threatened to pass the measure again “in a stronger form” if Bernanke failed to accept it. Bernanke told Sanders in February that identifying borrowers would be “counterproductive” and result in “severe adverse consequences for the economy.”

Where did the trillions go?

May 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM #394498

Arraya
Participant

The Fed is an odd entity. It falls under the “federal instrumentality” umbrella. Mostly for taxation purposes. It is legally a corporation with private shareholders and it is for profit, granted a portion of the profits go back to the Treasury. Though, as Greider says “literally protected from political accountability”. My question is why the facade? Either, legally give it accountability or make it fully private bank. We can’t see it’s books and it’s members come from the private sector anyway, (cough) Goldman Sachs. As well as own stakes in it. So, lets just call it private and cut the bullshit.

The big story in the news that goes unnoticed, for some reason, is the fight going on in congress to see the Feds books. This is a big story, IMO.

Think about it for a second. A supposed federal agency is refusing to let us know where are money is. Because, “there could be severe consequences to the economy”? Ok, dude, hand over the books…

It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNX4ZbLkEXtA

Sanders, in a statement after the hearing, threatened to pass the measure again “in a stronger form” if Bernanke failed to accept it. Bernanke told Sanders in February that identifying borrowers would be “counterproductive” and result in “severe adverse consequences for the economy.”

Where did the trillions go?

May 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM #394552

Arraya
Participant

The Fed is an odd entity. It falls under the “federal instrumentality” umbrella. Mostly for taxation purposes. It is legally a corporation with private shareholders and it is for profit, granted a portion of the profits go back to the Treasury. Though, as Greider says “literally protected from political accountability”. My question is why the facade? Either, legally give it accountability or make it fully private bank. We can’t see it’s books and it’s members come from the private sector anyway, (cough) Goldman Sachs. As well as own stakes in it. So, lets just call it private and cut the bullshit.

The big story in the news that goes unnoticed, for some reason, is the fight going on in congress to see the Feds books. This is a big story, IMO.

Think about it for a second. A supposed federal agency is refusing to let us know where are money is. Because, “there could be severe consequences to the economy”? Ok, dude, hand over the books…

It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNX4ZbLkEXtA

Sanders, in a statement after the hearing, threatened to pass the measure again “in a stronger form” if Bernanke failed to accept it. Bernanke told Sanders in February that identifying borrowers would be “counterproductive” and result in “severe adverse consequences for the economy.”

Where did the trillions go?

May 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM #394283

Arraya
Participant

The Fed is an odd entity. It falls under the “federal instrumentality” umbrella. Mostly for taxation purposes. It is legally a corporation with private shareholders and it is for profit, granted a portion of the profits go back to the Treasury. Though, as Greider says “literally protected from political accountability”. My question is why the facade? Either, legally give it accountability or make it fully private bank. We can’t see it’s books and it’s members come from the private sector anyway, (cough) Goldman Sachs. As well as own stakes in it. So, lets just call it private and cut the bullshit.

The big story in the news that goes unnoticed, for some reason, is the fight going on in congress to see the Feds books. This is a big story, IMO.

Think about it for a second. A supposed federal agency is refusing to let us know where are money is. Because, “there could be severe consequences to the economy”? Ok, dude, hand over the books…

It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNX4ZbLkEXtA

Sanders, in a statement after the hearing, threatened to pass the measure again “in a stronger form” if Bernanke failed to accept it. Bernanke told Sanders in February that identifying borrowers would be “counterproductive” and result in “severe adverse consequences for the economy.”

Where did the trillions go?

May 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM #394693

Arraya
Participant

The Fed is an odd entity. It falls under the “federal instrumentality” umbrella. Mostly for taxation purposes. It is legally a corporation with private shareholders and it is for profit, granted a portion of the profits go back to the Treasury. Though, as Greider says “literally protected from political accountability”. My question is why the facade? Either, legally give it accountability or make it fully private bank. We can’t see it’s books and it’s members come from the private sector anyway, (cough) Goldman Sachs. As well as own stakes in it. So, lets just call it private and cut the bullshit.

The big story in the news that goes unnoticed, for some reason, is the fight going on in congress to see the Feds books. This is a big story, IMO.

Think about it for a second. A supposed federal agency is refusing to let us know where are money is. Because, “there could be severe consequences to the economy”? Ok, dude, hand over the books…

It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNX4ZbLkEXtA

Sanders, in a statement after the hearing, threatened to pass the measure again “in a stronger form” if Bernanke failed to accept it. Bernanke told Sanders in February that identifying borrowers would be “counterproductive” and result in “severe adverse consequences for the economy.”

Where did the trillions go?

May 6, 2009 at 5:19 PM #394698

patientrenter
Participant

[quote=Arraya]The Fed is an odd entity….. It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.
[/quote]

Arraya, I don’t know if you actually read the excerpt that jpnpb gave us. Either you didn’t, or you take issue with the interviewee’s assessment of the Fed. The interviewee made it clear that the Fed was an arm of the Federal government, but that the people in it work closely with private bankers, so they can become more or less captive to bankers. It depends on the person. Volcker = 1 outcome. Geithner = another outcome.

But I know that there are people out there who believe that all of their problems come from some secret cabal. If only that cabal could be broken up, all their problems would go away. I am not saying that’s your PoV, Arraya, but some do think that. The world is more complicated.

May 6, 2009 at 5:19 PM #394288

patientrenter
Participant

[quote=Arraya]The Fed is an odd entity….. It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.
[/quote]

Arraya, I don’t know if you actually read the excerpt that jpnpb gave us. Either you didn’t, or you take issue with the interviewee’s assessment of the Fed. The interviewee made it clear that the Fed was an arm of the Federal government, but that the people in it work closely with private bankers, so they can become more or less captive to bankers. It depends on the person. Volcker = 1 outcome. Geithner = another outcome.

But I know that there are people out there who believe that all of their problems come from some secret cabal. If only that cabal could be broken up, all their problems would go away. I am not saying that’s your PoV, Arraya, but some do think that. The world is more complicated.

May 6, 2009 at 5:19 PM #394557

patientrenter
Participant

[quote=Arraya]The Fed is an odd entity….. It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.
[/quote]

Arraya, I don’t know if you actually read the excerpt that jpnpb gave us. Either you didn’t, or you take issue with the interviewee’s assessment of the Fed. The interviewee made it clear that the Fed was an arm of the Federal government, but that the people in it work closely with private bankers, so they can become more or less captive to bankers. It depends on the person. Volcker = 1 outcome. Geithner = another outcome.

But I know that there are people out there who believe that all of their problems come from some secret cabal. If only that cabal could be broken up, all their problems would go away. I am not saying that’s your PoV, Arraya, but some do think that. The world is more complicated.

May 6, 2009 at 5:19 PM #394027

patientrenter
Participant

[quote=Arraya]The Fed is an odd entity….. It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.
[/quote]

Arraya, I don’t know if you actually read the excerpt that jpnpb gave us. Either you didn’t, or you take issue with the interviewee’s assessment of the Fed. The interviewee made it clear that the Fed was an arm of the Federal government, but that the people in it work closely with private bankers, so they can become more or less captive to bankers. It depends on the person. Volcker = 1 outcome. Geithner = another outcome.

But I know that there are people out there who believe that all of their problems come from some secret cabal. If only that cabal could be broken up, all their problems would go away. I am not saying that’s your PoV, Arraya, but some do think that. The world is more complicated.

May 6, 2009 at 5:19 PM #394503

patientrenter
Participant

[quote=Arraya]The Fed is an odd entity….. It is literally private banks controlling the country via threat of financial destruction.
[/quote]

Arraya, I don’t know if you actually read the excerpt that jpnpb gave us. Either you didn’t, or you take issue with the interviewee’s assessment of the Fed. The interviewee made it clear that the Fed was an arm of the Federal government, but that the people in it work closely with private bankers, so they can become more or less captive to bankers. It depends on the person. Volcker = 1 outcome. Geithner = another outcome.

But I know that there are people out there who believe that all of their problems come from some secret cabal. If only that cabal could be broken up, all their problems would go away. I am not saying that’s your PoV, Arraya, but some do think that. The world is more complicated.

May 6, 2009 at 5:30 PM #394702

Allan from Fallbrook
Participant

PR: So it’s not the Illuminati’s fault? Shit.

How about the Catholic Church? Opie says it’s the Catholic Church. Growing up Catholic, I can see it, what with all the weird hats, the incense and Notre Dame Football.

May 6, 2009 at 5:30 PM #394293

Allan from Fallbrook
Participant

PR: So it’s not the Illuminati’s fault? Shit.

How about the Catholic Church? Opie says it’s the Catholic Church. Growing up Catholic, I can see it, what with all the weird hats, the incense and Notre Dame Football.

May 6, 2009 at 5:30 PM #394562

Allan from Fallbrook
Participant

PR: So it’s not the Illuminati’s fault? Shit.

How about the Catholic Church? Opie says it’s the Catholic Church. Growing up Catholic, I can see it, what with all the weird hats, the incense and Notre Dame Football.

May 6, 2009 at 5:30 PM #394032

Allan from Fallbrook
Participant

PR: So it’s not the Illuminati’s fault? Shit.

How about the Catholic Church? Opie says it’s the Catholic Church. Growing up Catholic, I can see it, what with all the weird hats, the incense and Notre Dame Football.
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