End the Federal Reserve

I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe. -- Abraham Lincoln

By Robert Bunn

In the United States today, we have, in effect, two governments: the duly constituted government, and the Federal Reserve System, an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government operating the money powers that are reserved to Congress by the Constitution.

For the past three decades the Federal Reserve has doubled our money supply every 10 years. That fact and fractional reserve banking are the real causes of inflation and the reduction of our buying power, amounting to a hidden tax on all of our citizens. These are the real reasons that both parents have to work just to get by.

Finally, people are beginning to ask tough questions: What is the Federal Reserve and who owns the stock in it? What are the Fed's relationships with the U.S. government, politicians, Wall Street and banks? Why does the Fed resist audits? How did it get its power from the government? Who creates our money, and in what percentages and volume? How does it create money out of thin air? How did the Federal Reserve get so much power, and how can we get that power back?

To find answers, the first and most important thing to do is a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve System. Amazingly this hasn't been done since it's creation in 1913. The second step is to end the Federal Reserve System.

There are those who say we cannot function without the Federal Reserve. The answer is our government can issue its own money and credit without the Fed's hyperexpensive compounding interest system. Moreover, ending the Fed doesn't mean our banks and banking system would be abolished. Everyone would still have access to loans and checking accounts.

At last the American banking system would be put on solid financial footing. Ending the Fed would put a stop to the dollar depreciation that has reduced it's value by 95 percent since 1913. Moreover, it would halt the massive debt accumulation placed on the backs of future generations and put a stop to funding enormously costly wars and outrageous pork-barrel spending. Our economy would no longer serve central banking bureaucrats with allegiance to both the banking cartel and the most powerful politicians in Washington.

Without the Fed, the bloated federal government would be put on a diet by having to live within its means. It would limit the government's arbitrary power to expand, and it would help the restoration of constitutional government. Inflation would end, and our election process would no longer be subject to monetary manipulation. And although the government would remain far too large, our monstrous and costly worldwide empire would gradually shrink to a manageable size.

Within one or two years we could retire the national debt without inflation or deflation and end the practice of private banks creating money as loans out of thin air (fractional reserve banking). Paying off the national debt would wipe out $500 billion-plus in annual interest payments and balance the budget, a process that should be required annually through a constitutional amendment. These steps would stabilize the economy and put an end to the highly destructive boom-bust economic cycles caused by the Fed and fractional reserve banking.

With these reforms we can make our government the most financially sound in the world. All we have to do is to take back the authority to create and control the quantity of money from the Federal Reserve and private banks. That power would then be placed in the hands of the Congress -- where it was under Presidents Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln, who served unburdened by the shackles of a centralized banking system.

Based on these reforms, I say there is plenty of room for optimism if we get off the Federal Reserve roller coaster. Then we can have a sound monetary system in this country without the Federal Reserve, a private banking cartel that pretends to be a government entity. History has proved that economic stability and central banking systems are incompatible.

Robert Bunn of Cape Girardeau is a former contributing columnist for Business Today.