The Federal Reserve System, also known as the central banking system of the United States, was created in 1913 through the Federal Reserve Act. It was a direct result of the economic panic that had set in on 1907. This centralized banking system has ruled our nation’s monetary system for almost a century now, and ironically the value has gradually become less and less over time. According to the Consumer Price Index, in 2008 it took $21.57 to purchase what $1 could purchase in 1913. Obviously there are numerous reasons for the dollar’s decline in value, and seemingly no ways to fix this problem. Our founding fathers fought to get rid of a centralized banking system. The Revolutionary War was virtually fought for freedom; this freedom did not just include religion, as economics remained a major factor in our rebellion from King George III. Benjamin Franklin confirms this,”The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.” We won our independence in 1783 from England, but a new battle began with a new central banking institution of our own nation to deal with. In order to understand a central banking system, a few prime concepts should be understood. First, a central bank is an institution that prints the currency of an entire nation. They control the supply of money, and the interest rates that they tack on interest to every dollar “loaned” to our government. By increasing the amount of dollars printed and thus creating more interest, the central bank has a monopoly on the value of our money. This can only lead to one outcome, debt and more debt. Since the central bank has a monopoly on the currency of our nation, the central bank will essentially pay their own debt by printing more money, and thus the dollar loses more value. This is a vicious cycle and probably will be for years
The Federal Reserve System, also known as the central banking system of the United States, was created in 1913 through the Federal Reserve Act. It was a direct result of the economic panic that had set in on 1907. This centralized banking system has ruled our nation’s monetary system for almost a century now, and ironically the value has gradually become less and less over time. According to the Consumer Price Index, in 2008 it took $21.57 to purchase what $1 could purchase in 1913. Obviously there are numerous reasons for the dollar’s decline in value, and seemingly no ways to fix this problem. Our founding fathers fought to get rid of a centralized banking system. The Revolutionary War was virtually fought for freedom; this freedom did not just include religion, as economics remained a major factor in our rebellion from King George III. Benjamin Franklin confirms this,”The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.” We won our independence in 1783 from England, but a new battle began with a new central banking institution of our own nation to deal with. In order to understand a central banking system, a few prime concepts should be understood. First, a central bank is an institution that prints the currency of an entire nation. They control the supply of money, and the interest rates that they tack on interest to every dollar “loaned” to our government. By increasing the amount of dollars printed and thus creating more interest, the central bank has a monopoly on the value of our money. This can only lead to one outcome, debt and more debt. Since the central bank has a monopoly on the currency of our nation, the central bank will essentially pay their own debt by printing more money, and thus the dollar loses more value. This is a vicious cycle and probably will be for years