Fed Watch

 Fed Watch

With all eyes on the Federal Reserve today anxiously awaiting their decision on interest rates, aptly earning the Wall Street moniker "Fed Watch," it begs the question: Who watches the Fed?

Created in 1913 in response to multiple previous financial crises, the Federal Reserve is the ultimate central-banking system that wields God-like power over the global economy. Nearly everything humanity touches is directly impacted by the Fed's monetary policy. Their power is so vast that when a central banker sneezes, the world catches a virus.

The primary tool the Fed utilizes in projecting their monetary hegemony is the "Federal Funds Rate," colloquially termed the "interest rate." For some bizarre reason, they have complete control over this critical variable which directly impacts the reserve currency of the world, ie the U.S. Dollar.

If this all sounds a little complicated, it isn't. They Federal Reserve was given the mandate by Congress to maximize employment, stabilize prices, moderate long-term interest rates. It is by this final mandate that the Fed controls near-absolute power in the financial markets because the Fed Funds rate is directly tied to the 10-year treasury, which is the basis for nearly all mortgage lending in the United States.

The Rothschilds learned long ago if you can control the debt of a nation, you can control the nation. Hence is the case with the Federal Reserve. A body of unelected bureaucrats decide how much you pay for your mortgage, your car payment, your student loan, your credit card, and what the banks pay you for lending them money. And money? Even money itself is a powerful lever the Fed can pull in concert with the Treasury to increase liquidity, tighten supply, or tweak however they feel will most effectively accomplish their policy.

But what is their policy? Fed policy is loosely a reflection of the sitting Administration...they implement the financial whims of the sitting political party to a certain extent. If the current Administration wants to inject the economy with some growth, the Fed cuts rates, buys bonds (which adds liquidity), and generally maintains a loose monetary policy. In the event of rampant inflation (which steals buying power), the Fed is tasked with "controlling" prices, which typically implies RAISING rates to combat the effects of easy money.

We find ourselves in an easy money world now. The value of most things has remained the same (or even decreased, if you look at the "value" of a 4-year college degree for example), but their prices have skyrocketed. This is a serious problem when wages don't "keep up." Take one look around, from fuel to housing to education to healthcare (assuming one pays for it) to grocery bills, etc. The list is long.

Over time one of the greatest inflationary results has been the growth of the Fed itself. Its size and role has been on an unending creep up over the past century. To boomerang back to the top central question, who watches the Fed? Nobody really, just the entire world...but few enter the halls of this true Caesar.

Taxpayer Elegy

 Taxpayer Elegy

Jesus said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." Today millions of taxpayers across the country will transfer trillions of dollars in hard-earned income and gains to local, state, and federal tax authorities.

This "civic duty" is administered and enforced via the Internal Revenue Service at the behest of elected politicians. The IRS is one of the few unelected organizations capable of revoking your passport, directly reaching into your savings account without authorization, and denying your liberty. It is the ultimate enforcement arm of the political establishment; you don't vote, nothing happens to you. You don't pay taxes you owe, you can go to jail. America wasn't always this way.

The vast majority of taxation comes via personal income tax and associated taxes such as "Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and other retirement taxes." Prior to 1913 there was no income tax. In 1913, the States ratified the 16th Amendment. This instituted the Federal Income Tax, many states would follow with their own tax systems over the coming decades. In 1913 IRS Form 1040 was FOUR pages long, today it is over 100 pages long. Inflation isn't only a monetary problem. Regulatory creep has resulted in the average American now unable to complete all but the simplest tax return. 

Why aren't more people concerned about taxpayer rights? Politicians certainly aren't...they live and breed (that's not a typo) on the largesse provided by the taxpayer. Politicians only respect those who control the pursestrings. ILAF proposes a solution to the income tax crisis kneecapping millions of Americans AND the concern about voting rights: Implement direct representation of the taxpayer via the annual tax return. Why? The IRS is probably the most inclusive of any organization in the world. It wants payment from everyone, regardless of skin color, orientation, background, handicap, veteran status, gender, or even intelligence.

The annual IRS return would serve both civic duties; voting and taxation. Referendums could be voted on directly from a return. Representatives could also be elected via the annual tax return. Ditto for the President and Vice President every four years. April 15th becomes Super Tuesday. This plan would truly restore power to the people, and maybe, just maybe next year you will get a "Thank You" card from your congressman instead of his lobbyist.

 

In Hoc Anno Domini

This editorial was written in 1949 by the late Vermont Royster.

     When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

     Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

     But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression--for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

     There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

     Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

     And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

     So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

     But it came to pass for a while in diverse places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

     Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

     Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

     And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

     Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.