A major political and legal confrontation is unfolding between the Justice Department and the Federal Reserve.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell issued a rare statement this weekend in response to subpoenas and threats of criminal charges from the Department of Justice, tied to his testimony before Congress last year about a multi-billion dollar renovation of Fed buildings in Washington, D.C.
Powell described the legal action as unprecedented, arguing that it threatens the Fed’s independence by attempting to punish the central bank for doing its job rather than following political pressure. He said the threat of prosecution was not genuinely about building renovations but about the Fed’s willingness to set interest rates based on economic conditions rather than on the preferences of the executive branch.
Should we, American taxpayers, get caught up in this? Do we care to defend the Federal Reserve against political lawfare? This is a tough one.
If what Powell says is true, the Trump administration is punishing Powell for not bowing to demands for lower interest rates and that would be wrong. But the very existence of the Federal Reserve is wrong!
The Federal Reserve is the monetary perversion underlying nearly every American problem. Politicians are able to spend endlessly on their priorities while the Fed enables them to print more money, quietly eroding the value of American workers’ hard-earned wages year after year.
On this point, Ron Paul has been unambiguous:
“It is and should be a mainstream cause to end the power and secrecy of the Fed. It’s my own view that ending the Fed would address the most vexing problems of politics of our time. It would bring an end to dollar depreciation. It would take away from the government the means to fund its endless wars. It would curb the government’s attacks on the civil liberties of Americans, stop its vast debt accumulation that will be paid by future generations, and arrest its massive expansions of the welfare state that has turned us into a nation of dependents.”
So what do the American people gain from this fight? Spoiler: Nothing.
If the Federal Reserve caves to the Trump administration’s demands for lower interest rates, the result will be further dollar devaluation and expanded capacity to fund wars the administration clearly wants in Iran, Greenland, Venezuela, Ukraine, and more.
If the Fed does not cave, it still retains unconstitutional powers that harm Americans in quieter but equally destructive ways.
Either way, this is not a fight being waged on our behalf.
We gain nothing from it.
The post No Tears for the Federal Reserve appeared first on Redacted.
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