Article from FLN Staff.
It’s counter-intuitive, to say the least, but Motley Fool reports that the Federal Reserve is by far the most profitable entity within the Federal Government. The Fed generated $80 Billion in 2017 from securities in it’s “market operations”. And that wasn’t even their biggest year. In 2015, the Fed generated $97.7 Billion.
Just in case you thought the Federal Reserve was just in the business of telling the Treasury what to print, that’s not the case. While it’s good that the revenues raised go into the general fund, it’s a reminder that the Fed has enormous power, and has a disproportionately large role in the United States of America’s economy. The market operations of the Federal Reserve operate autonomously of the elected branches, like the rest of the Fed, meaning that the source of those revenues are evidence of just how much they can impact us. The 2008 financial crisis illustrated that, and the Fed wouldn’t even disclose via the Freedom of Information Act who benefited from their loans to corporate entities that year.
The Federal Reserve stands as a secretive and insular organization, devoid of the level of accountability that we expect in government. It’s clear that their involvement has negatively impacted the US Economy in the past, and if unchecked, will do so again. As they continue to meddle in the economy and generate record profits of their own, Americans should have a serious discussion about a governmental entity that can pull money out of thin air and bestow it upon anyone they wish without consequences.
Image Credit: By AgnosticPreachersKid (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
End the fed!!
Look up the Austrian School of Economics…
F. Hayek
Ludwig von Mises
Anyone that researches the Fed must wind up with the conclusion that it’s at least very incompetent and at worst malicious. There just isn’t any other conclusion to come by.
With that being said, while I’d rather have Congress to have greater control of the monetary issue, they too can be as reckless and/or evil with power – so we’re back to the original problem, just with new faces.
Regardless, the Fed is clearly part of our problem, but ending the Fed won’t necessarily solve the problem either. :/