The Federal Reserve is neither, being a private bank with obfuscated ownership, and holding nothing in reserve. Fiat currency is an illusion based on the perception of the holder that they may exchange it for goods and services. As a store of value it has exponentially decreased in worth and with the current rate of money-printer-go-brrrrrrrrrrrrrr quantitative easing to infinity, the value proposition can only continue to slide in one direction.
The creation of the Federal Reserve (formed in 1913 as a direct response to bank runs) represented not simply the creation of a central banking system, but a covert and illicit conspiracy to rob every private bank vault in the United States.
Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood "The Monster." But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates. Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, and Lew Rockwell, this extraordinary new film is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed, and why curbing it must be our first priority. Alan Greenspan is not, we're told, happy about this 42-minute blockbuster. Watch it, and you'll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.
Jekyll Island: The Truth Behind The Federal Reserve exposes how the global elite created the Federal Reserve banking system to gain financial control over free nations. To understand today's financial collapse, you must first understand how we got to this point.
What's the problem with the world economy? It's debt -- too much personal debt -- too much corporate debt -- and most importantly, too much government debt.
People have a natural tendency to want to spend now and pay later. It's the same for governments. If governments can spend by borrowing, they will do it. What's government's option; anger the voters in the here and now by having to raise taxes immediately to cover their reckless spending to get themselves re-elected? No way! If loans are offered, governments will always choose borrowing.
The problem is that debt carries interest and the interest is strangling the life out of the economy of every nation on earth.
But most importantly, it's not just the amount of interest paid to the banks - those who give the loans -- it's the control over political process this debt gives the banks. We can never fix the instability in the world economic system until we forbid government borrowing.
Why? Because as Proverbs warns us: "The borrower is servant to the lender."
Economic instability always favors the banks and financial speculators. Economic stability always favors we, the people and the cause of human freedom. If banks are in control of the money, there is no way they will ever create a stable system.
This will come as a surprise to most people, but today nations do not control their national money supply. Today, most money is created by banks -- as loans. It's not what backs the money that is important. It is who is controlling the quantity. Today, banks run by the global elite are in complete control of the quantity of the money in every nation. As a result banks have seized control of the entire democratic process and will, by this seizure, reverse humanity's thousand-year march towards freedom.
The good news is that it doesn't need to be this way. Banks don't need to be in control. Governments don't need to borrow. Governments don't need a national debt.
This is a relatively recent phenomenon. As long as we allow government borrowing -- the cancer at the core of all our economic problems -- we will never return governments to true democratic republics. They will all be just shams -- fakes -- appearing to go through the motions of free elections when in reality the big banks have effective control over the democratic process. This means that no government which borrows from banks can ever pass effective legislation to reverse this usurpation of humanity's quest for political freedom.