forbes.com — U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called on lawmakers Tuesday to consider new rules to expand the central bank's authority over the financial markets, saying financial markets need to be more stable and resilient.
Jul 8, 2008 View in Crawl 4
xombierobotJul 8, 2008
The FED is already F'ing things up enough. Giving them more power is not the right idea. They are creating money out of thin air and increasing inflation.
Closed AccountJul 9, 2008
Other countries do just fine without a private bank ruining their economy.There, fixed that for ya.
stingingnettleJul 9, 2008
Apparently the power to create money isn't enough.
wynjaJul 9, 2008
This is the same tactic that was used to justify the creation of the Federal Reserve. Now, they are wanting to broaden the power of the Federal Reserve so they are engineering a depression to get their point across.
salamnderJul 10, 2008
In the words of the comic book store guy, "worst idea ever." Before all the 13 year olds start bitching, I have a degree in Finance and worked as a bank manager for a year. The amount of money banks have to make loans comes from money deposited in checking and savings accounts as well as time deposits (CDs) and money from the FED. If the FED was taken out of the picture and banks needed to back 100% of their debt obligation then there would never be money to lend to consumers. The money in savings accounts and checking accounts can be accessed and FDIC rules guarantee the first $100,000 (there are ways to make that higher). CDs are less liquid, meaning that the bank can use that money for the given time period of the instrument (i.e. 9 months) so the bank knows they don't need to have that money on hand since the consumer is not likely to take the hit when they cash it out early. Now here is where the FED comes in. The FED supplies banks with money so they can lend for various reasons. This is dictated by the Federal Funds rate. Basically an interest rate that banks are charged to borrow money from the FED. If banks were to be required to have the financial backing to pay their obligations by 100% all of the time, there would be no money to lend. If you think the US economy is screwed up now, just wait until there is no money to lend. No new homes bought because there is no liquidity in the mortgage market. In times past the home was a great way to gain equity and then later, use the equity to secure loans when needed. Again this wouldn't happen because no banks would want to have an outstanding loan since they would need to collect more assets to have the 100% backup. Enough of my rant. + digg :D
timdiggJul 10, 2008
Madness?THIS IS AMERICA!!!!!!sorry I had to....
erich100Jul 10, 2008
If there was ever a place where the ends justify the means this is it. Killing the fed, no matter how painful is the only way America can become America again. Too much power in the hands of psychopaths.