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The Federal Reserve: Public Enemy Number One

June 18, 2018

The Federal Reserve: Public Enemy Number One

When currency was backed by gold, a central bank’s main function was to maintain the value of the issued currency in terms of gold.  For example, if a central bank created too much money against the gold reserves in the banking system, an increasing number of people would begin to exchange their currency for gold.  To combat this, a central bank would be forced to raise interest rates and decrease the money supply.  The higher interest rates would incentivize people to exchange gold for larger savings on deposit that earn interest.  Banking reserves – gold – would return to the banking system and the economy would return to balance.  The prime reason for insisting on defining currency in terms of a precious metal was to provide a self-correcting braking mechanism to the creation of money.  As expressed by the great Wilhelm Röpke:

If in the production of goods the most important pedal is the accelerator, in the production of money it is the brake.  To insure that this brake works automatically and independently of the whims of government and the pressure of parties and groups seeking “easy money” has been one of the main functions of the gold standard.  That the liberal should prefer the automatic brake of gold to the whims of government in its role of trustee of a managed currency is understandable.”[1]

The US dollar was backed by gold as recently as 1971.  Any central bank in the world could present the Federal Reserve $35 and receive 1-ounce of gold in exchange.  However, on August 15, 1971 – blaming it on the “gnomes of Zurich” – President Nixon “temporarily” broke the dollar’s last link with gold.  Nixon closed the “gold window” and reneged on the promise to exchange an ounce of gold for $35.  Since then, the system of credit in the US has been under the Fed’s complete control.

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