Mark49:SC
A computer is not running for President, Bob Barr is, and his idea to politicize the Fed is pretty bad. Friedman won the Nobel prize for his work at the University of Chicago. He showed that the best the Fed can do is to increase the supply of money at a constant rate, somewhere near the growth rate of the economy. During the 60's and 70's, the Fed was constantly missing the targets and timing of interest rate changes. They have come a long way since then, but they do favor inflation over deflation, which is good. No inflation is preferred, but they aren't that good yet. This thing with Barr gives me pause. He should know better. Either McCain or Obama will be President. You may want to think about which of those is worse before you pull the lever for neither.
Mark
Hi Mark,
I could be wrong BUT
by Alan Greenspan
[Editor's note - It may
surprise more than a few gold devotees to learn they have an
ideological friend in none other than Federal Reserve Board chairman
Alan Greenspan. Starting in the 1950s, in fact, Greenspan was
a stalwart member of Ayn Rand's intellectual inner circle. A
self-designated "objectivist", Rand preached a strongly
libertarian view, applying it to politics and economics, as well
as to religion and popular culture. Under her influence, Greenspan
wrote for the first issue of what was to become the widely-circulated
Objectivist Newsletter. When Gerald Ford appointed him
to the Council of Economic Advisors, Greenspan invited Rand to
his swearing-in ceremony. He even attended her funeral in 1982.
In 1967, Rand published her
non-fiction book, Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal. In it,
she included Gold and Economic Freedom, the essay by Alan
Greenspan which appears below. Drawing heavily from Murray Rothbard's
much longer The Mystery of Banking, Greenspan argues persuasively
in favor of a gold standard and against the concept of a central
bank.
Can this be the same Alan Greenspan
who today chairs the most important central bank of them all?
Again, you might be surprised. R.W. Bradford writes in Liberty
magazine that, as Fed chairman, "Greenspan (once) recommended
to a Senate committee that all economic regulations should have
fixed lifespans. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) accused him of
'playing with fire, or indeed throwing gasoline on the fire,'
and asked him whether he favored a similar provision in the Fed's
authorization. Greenspan coolly answered that he did. Do you
actually mean, demanded the senator, that the Fed 'should cease
to function unless affirmatively continued?' 'That is correct,
sir,' Greenspan responded."
I view the dollar as a place holder for human effort.
Having a fed that with a stoke of a pen take the place of human effort rings false.
