[quote=jpinpb]
Regardless of who “owns” the Fed, what can we do? How can we safeguard ourselves?[/quote]
That’s really the important question. Conspiracy theories about nefarious motives and self dealing, may have a grain of truth. Because guess what? Banks are in business to make money! Sometimes they actually meet and make plans for how they’re going to do that. And surprise! They don’t invite us to those meetings!
But the fed is a little different. Above I gave a brief description of their congressional charge. It’s pretty simple. Prevent panic. Keep the dollar stable. Provide and ensure liquidity in the market.
Sometimes they’ve done a good job of that. Sometimes they’ve sucked. But almost invariably when the fed’s decisions in hindsight suck, there are dozens of outside economists that agree with their actions. Managing a money supply is not an easy task.
Particularly over the last 6 years, they’ve sucked. Their failure was a key ingredient in both the bubble and its bursting. (I don’t think they had much responsibility with the CDS problems) Congress can, and should fix it. It is their responsibility.
