IN A 1995 interview, I asked Milton Friedman whether "it would be preferable to abolish the Fed entirely and just have government stick to a monetary growth rule?" Friedman answered: "Yes, it's preferable. And there's no chance at all of it happening." He didn't live to see the abolition of the Fed; perhaps no one reading this will. Still, a couple of years after Friedman's 2006 death, a semi-mass movement calling to "End the Fed!" arose in the aftermath of Rep. Ron Paul's first Republican presidential run in 2008.
The Texas congressman found during that campaign a surprising (even to him) number of youngsters blaming the central bank, founded in 1913, for government sins from inflation to war (which is easier to wage when it can be financed by cash from a central bank summoned more or less at will).
The Fed's performance since Paul's campaign has not blunted the urgency of the message. From 2008 to 2011, the central bank spit out as much new money as had entered the U.S. economy in the previous century, and it grew the value of the financial instruments it bought as an instrument of this money generation by $1.35 trillion in just part of 2008.
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Denne historien er fra December 2024-utgaven av Reason magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Abolish the NSA and CIA
ENDING THESE UNACCOUNTABLE AGENCIES WOULD SAFEGUARD CIVIL LIBERTIES AND IMPROVE INTELLIGENCE GATHERING.
Abolish ICC
THE AGENCY DISRUPTS COMMUNITIES AND FAMILIES, FOR NO GOOD.
We Still Live in the Physical World
The digital world has not effaced our humanity, no matter what social critics like Christine Rosen say.
Blaming Bill Buckley
IT'S THE CLEANEST, neatnest [sic] operating piece of social machinery I've ever seen. It makes me envious.\" When Rexford Tugwell, an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, wrote these words in 1934, he was not referring to the New Deal programs in his purview.
The Backpage Trial Finally Ends-With a Suicide and a Sentencing
UNFAIR ALLEGATIONS OF SEX TRAFFICKING CHILLED FREE SPEECH ONLINE AND RUINED LIVES.
Abolish the National Park Service
PRIVATIZATION CAN MAKE AMERICA'S NATIONAL PARKS MORE ACCESSIBLE AND BETTER MAINTAINED.
Abolish the Fed
IT MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE AMERICA WITHOUT THE FEDERAL RESERVE, BUT A CENTRAL BANK IS NOT ESSENTIAL TO A FUNCTIONING ECONOMY.
Abolish the FCC
LET THE INVISIBLE HAND REGULATE THE INVISIBLE RESOURCE.
Abolish the Department of Transportation
IT DOESN'T EVEN BUILD THE ROADS. IT JUST INCREASES COSTS.
Abolish Borders
LINES DRAWN BY GOVERNMENTS DON’T HAVE MORAL MAGIC.
