Tag: federal reserve

Ending the Fed

Even if Trump and Musk do everything they promise, it won’t matter if they don’t change the built-in incentive that feeds the Swamp. 

Trump and Musk are doing a lot to correct the corruption woven into every fabric of the Republic. But if their journey takes them up to the door of the Federal Reserve and they don’t kick it open and destroy what protects it, everything else they do will just be rearranging the deck chairs on the USS America sinking in debt. 

One hundred twelve years ago, progressives pulled off a trifecta of woe: 

  1. The direct election of senators, to further doom states’ rights,
  2. the imposition of the up-until-then unconstitutional punitive, progressive income tax, to Karl Marx’s delight,
  3. and the linchpin, creation of the Federal Reserve, which gave the ultimate cabal of huge banking interests exclusive power to print money while simultaneously diminishing its value and consequently the power to deny money to their enemies and reward themselves and their cohorts.

The Fed allegedly was created to manage natural economic ebbs and flows. But in reality, its creators empowered themselves to artificially create economy-killing shortages to drive up prices, including the price of borrowing money, which became a necessity because of the diminishing value of money, which they simultaneously achieved by printing it on demand.

The resulting hyperinflation has made the dollar worth 3 cents of its value in 1914. 

If Trump and Musk leave the Fed intact, it is certain that it will print even more money to bail out even more banks which otherwise would fail because their customers cannot afford to pay what they borrowed. There will be a money printing spree at the Fed to make the last 112 years look like penny pinching. 

The Fed is the epitome of unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy, also known as the Swamp and the Deep State. 

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Rep. Thomas Massie, Sen. Mike Lee Introduce Bills to Audit and Abolish Federal Reserve

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) have teamed up to reintroduce the “End the Fed” bill in the House and Senate to liquidate the Federal Reserve’s assets and transfer all money to the Treasury. 

Additionally, Massie also introduced a bill to audit the Federal Reserve in the House.

Massie previously introduced the bills in 2024.

“The Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act was first introduced by former Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) in 1999 and hasn’t been reintroduced since 2013. In addition to introducing this legislation to “End the Fed,” Rep. Massie has also introduced H.R. 24, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2025 to audit the Federal Reserve. H.R. 24 was originally introduced by former Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) in 2009,” according to a press release from Massie’s office.

The Act will abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and liquidate all assets to return to the taxpayer. It also repeals the Federal Reserve Act, the 1913 law that created the Federal Reserve, effective one year after the bill is signed into law.

Read the full bill here.

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The Fed Has Stopped Pretending Price Inflation Is Going Away

At its September 2024 meeting, the Fed’s FOMC cut the target federal funds rate by a historically large 50 basis points and then justified this cut on the grounds that “The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance.”

The FOMC again cut the target rate in November and then again in December. Each time, the FOMC’s official statement said something to the effect of “[price] inflation is headed to two percent. Specifically, the November statement said “[Price inflation] has made progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent objective.” The December statement said exactly the same thing.

It remains unclear what motivated the FOMC to slice the target rate so drastically in September. Was it a cynical political ploy to stimulate the economy right before an election? Or was the Fed spooked by weak economic data? We don’t know, and the Fed is a secretive organization.

But whatever the Fed actually believes, the committee’s claims about “greater confidence” in falling price inflation is now gone. The FOMC announced in January that it would not lower the target rate, and the FOMC also removed from its official statement the line about making progress “toward the Committee’s 2 percent objective.” That sentence disappeared from the written statement, although Powell, in the press conference, apparently felt the need to remind the audience that “Inflation has moved much closer to our 2 percent longer-run goal…” He nonetheless failed to mention anything about continued progress.

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Elizabeth Warren’s Hubris Allowed Trump To Defund the CFPB

Since at least the days of the ancient Greeks, humans have known that one way to write a compelling story is by including a bit of hamartia—a tragic flaw.

Sometimes that is a physical shortcoming—Achilles had that famously vulnerable heel—but it is often more interesting if the flaw is a more innate thing tied to a character’s understanding of themselves. Hubris, or excessive pride, is the famous one. After all, it wasn’t really Achilles’ unprotected heel that took him down, but his false belief that his mother had made him invulnerable.

You might say the exact same thing about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It could be headed into a sort of coma later this year because of a fatal flaw embedded by its own parents: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and former President Barack Obama.

Unlike every other department and agency within the federal government, the CFPB is not funded via congressional appropriations. Instead, its funding flows directly from the Federal Reserve. Each year, the White House submits a budget to the Federal Reserve, and the central bank hands over the necessary amount—$729.4 million last year, in case you were wondering.

For a long time after the CFPB was created in 2010, there were serious questions about the constitutionality of that structure. That finally got resolved last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that Congress was within its powers to hand off the purse strings. So, funding the CFPB via the Federal Reserve is not unconstitutional—it’s just unorthodox and foolish.

Here’s where the hubris enters the story. When Warren and Obama created the CFPB, they designed that unorthodox funding structure specifically to prevent a future Republican-led Congress from trying to defund the bureau. Remember, this was in the age when Republicans were running around the country telling voters they intended to repeal Obamacare too. By isolating the CFPB from Congress’ budgetary powers, Warren was trying to make it invulnerable to attack.

Instead, she simply gave it a fatal flaw.

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Musk Backs Ron Paul as Federal Reserve Chairman

Former Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) could make a great Federal Reserve chairman, Department of Government Efficiency task force leader Elon Musk suggested Monday.

Responding to remarks from TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk that Paul, who has for years questioned the legitimacy of the Fed, would “make a great next Chairman of the Federal Reserve,” Musk replied, “Great idea!”

The supportive comment was Musk’s second endorsement of the notion over the weekend.

That exchange was seen by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) who told his audience: “Raise your hand if you’d like to see @RonPaul as Federal Reserve chairman.”

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Former Federal Reserve Adviser Arrested For Passing Trade Secrets To China

John Harold Rogers, 63, of Vienna, Virginia, a former Senior Adviser for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (FRB), was arrested today on charges that he conspired to steal Federal Reserve trade secrets for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

            In furtherance of the conspiracy, Rogers allegedly made false statements to the Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General, and those false statements had a material impact on its investigation.

            The indictment, unsealed today, was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr.,  FBI Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the Washington Field Office, and John T. Perez, Special Agent in Charge, Headquarters Operations, Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (FRB-CFPB OIG).

            “President Trump tasks us with protecting our fellow Americans from all enemies, foreign and domestic. As alleged in the indictment, this defendant leveraged his position within the Federal Reserve to pass sensitive financial information to the Chinese government, a designated foreign adversary,” said U.S. Attorney Martin. “Let this indictment serve as a warning to all who seek to betray or exploit the United States: law enforcement will find you and hold you accountable.”

            “The Chinese Communist Party has expanded its economic espionage campaign to target U.S. government financial policies and trade secrets in an effort to undermine the U.S. and become the sole superpower,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg. “Today’s indictment represents the FBI’s unwavering commitment to protect U.S. national security interests and U.S. jobs and to bring to justice those who are willing to betray their country for personal gain.”

            “This indictment sends a clear message that those who deliberately misuse sensitive Federal Reserve information for their own personal gain and lie about it to investigators will be held accountable for their actions,” said John T. Perez, Special Agent in Charge of Headquarters Operations FRB-CFPB OIG.

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Trump Says He Will ‘Demand’ Rate Cuts, Aligning His Views With Federal Reserve

President Donald Trump, speaking Thursday to the World Economic Forum, called for future interest rate cuts to follow declining oil prices, in remarks that align with the Federal Reserve’s projections for further easing. The speech marks Trump’s first significant commentary on monetary policy since taking office three days ago.

“With oil prices going down, I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately, and likewise they should be dropping all over the world,” Trump, speaking via video from the U.S., told the audience of global leaders and business elites gathered in the Swiss alpine town. His comments suggest a conditional approach, linking monetary policy to energy markets.

A Rare Accord With the Fed

Trump’s remarks are notable for their congruence with the Federal Reserve’s current outlook. The central bank, under Chair Jerome Powell, has signaled plans to cut interest rates twice more this year, with additional reductions likely in 2026 and 2027. The Fed’s stance reflects expectations that inflation will continue to moderate even as the unemployment rate stays low and the economy grows faster than what the central bank sees as its long-term potential.

This alignment contrasts sharply with Trump’s first term, during which he frequently criticized the Fed for raising rates.

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U.S. Federal Reserve withdraws from global climate coalition

The United States Federal Reserve has withdrawn from the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a global coalition of central banks engaged in the study of climate risk that was launched in 2017.

“While the Board has appreciated the engagement with the NGFS and its members, the work of the NGFS has increasingly broadened in scope, covering a wider range of issues that are outside of the Board’s statutory mandate,” the central bank said in a statement on Friday.

The Fed has come under pressure in recent years from Republican lawmakers, including over concerns that climate concerns have unduly influenced financial regulation and that the central bank has become increasingly politicized.

In September, two House Republicans asked the Government Accountability Office to evaluate U.S. bank regulators’ membership in the NGFS.

Graham Steele, a former Biden-era Treasury official, said the Fed’s decision is “clearly a political move.”

“It defies what we know about the science and economic science risks of climate change,” Steele said in a statement. “There is no way to read this as anything other than responding to short-term political considerations.”

The central bank joined the global coalition in 2020.

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Bankers, Fed Origins, And World War I

Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.—Rothschild

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson…—FDR

The American people are suckers for the word “reform.” You just put that into any corrupt piece of legislation, call it “reform” and people say “Oh, I’m all for ‘reform,’” and so they vote for it or accept it.”—G. Edward Griffin

Though there had been steady steps toward centralization of the monetary and financial system in the United States—especially since banking and the federal government were connected by the National Banking System during and after the Civil War (ca. 1863-1913)—the financial-banking elite, especially in New York, still had several complaints prior to the creation of the Fed.

New York Banks, Wall Street, and “Monopoly”

The movement toward central banking, the Federal Reserve System, in America was a keystone of the Progressive movement. Like all other regulations and reforms of the Progressive era—as perfectly encapsulated by G. Edward Griffin’s quote above—the movement toward the Fed was ironically presented publicly as fighting banking “monopoly,” “stabilizing” the system, curbing inflationism, and disciplining banks and financial elites. In fact, it would involve the establishing of a monopoly in the name of fighting monopoly. Consequently, this would furnish government a handy tool for greater inflationism and would allow the banks in the system to engage in unsound monetary practices with the promise of government bailouts. Remarks Rothbard in A History of Money and Banking,

Fortunately for the cartelists, a solution to this vexing problem lay at hand. Monopoly could be put over in the name of opposition to monopoly! In that way, using the rhetoric beloved by Americans, the form of the political economy could be maintained, while the content could be totally reversed.

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Powell says he won’t resign for Trump, can’t be fired

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had a clear, direct response when asked during a press conference Thursday if he would step down if asked to do so by President-elect Trump.

“No,” said Powell, whose term as chair ends in 2026.

When asked to elaborate and if he would be legally required to leave, he again said, “No.”

Powell later said it is “not permitted under the law” for the president to fire or demote him or any of the other Fed governors with leadership positions.

Trump appointed Powell during his first term in 2017 but repeatedly and publicly criticized the Fed and its chair for not cutting rates fast enough throughout his tenure.

Powell also said in 2019 that he would not resign if asked by Trump. President Biden reappointed Powell in 2021 — despite objections from progressives who have criticized the chair — saying he has burdened the average American by keeping rates too high for too long.

Trump suggested earlier this year that Powell, a lifelong Republican, was “political” and would cut rates ahead of the 2024 election to help Democrats. While the Fed did cut rates in September by a whopping 50 basis points, Trump handily defeated Vice President Harris this week.

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