Milton Friedman: The Purpose of the Federal Reserve

Milton Friedman says that the purpose of the federal reserve is to provide cash when there is a run on the banks. This is part of a 10 hour series which can …


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  1. @TeaParty1776 Ok I see, so basically the disparity between Friedman and the
    Austrians is that Friedman believed that properly controlling the money
    supply could eliminate the disequilibrium period? Whether or not that could
    work remains to be seen

    Reply
  2. Your comment made me laugh. The imagery of a system being so well run that
    it shuts itself down, with a "sorry" no less, is humorous to say the least.
    And too true.

    Reply
  3. The FDIC money belongs to the banks. It's a cost of business. Without that
    cost, they'd be free to pay more on deposits, charge less on loans or pay
    higher dividends. Of course no insurance could very well shrink the amount
    of deposits and raise the cost of loans. Where did Friedman call for
    eliminating one or the other? What time in the video?

    Reply
  4. @jimmyrtle Huge amounts of Fed "money" are all over the world and dont get
    removed. The "money" of other nations pyramids on this, increasing the
    destructiveness of inflation. A European bank crash will ripple out to us.
    Govt is not magic. Real goods must be produced by the market. The
    authorities are corrupt.

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  5. @chapsroc Sorry chapsroc, you have not done your research. If you had, then
    you would know that MF did not believe in artificially stimulating
    consumption or devaluing the dollar. You would also know that the dollar is
    the world reserve currency because other countries devalue their currencies
    even more than dollar. Many countries have also wrongly created
    institutions like the IMF by which they stick together with money. However,
    MF was against all of this

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  6. I don't see why deflation is bad, if the money in peoples pockets grew in
    value, would this not increase aggregate demand in general if people
    decided to over-consume instead of save. Even if they decided to save then
    this would have resulted in lower interest rates which would have spurred
    investment. What is so bad about people being able to buy more with less.

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  7. I think so too, unfortunately when a currency is collapsing nobody lends
    because the interest rates would be absurdly high due to the devaluation of
    the dollars. if i loan out 100 dollars and you have to give me the
    principle plus 5 percent interest at the end of the year, but during the
    year, there was 6 percent inflation, i lost money.

    Reply
  8. Why do u even agree with Milton Friedman? this is the same guy who's been
    around consulting presidents and bankers (especially goldman sachs) and
    mainly responsible for why we are in the economic crysis that we are.
    Doesn't that disturb you? Give the movie Zeitgeist: addendum a chance and
    come back later.. heck, even the movie "the Corporation" will do.

    Reply
  9. @jimmyrtle "The paper currencies will not survive too much longer. Most
    governments now owe as much or more than the annual GDPs of their nations
    (typically far more, under GAAP accounting). But the total liabilities in
    the system are much larger. Even worse, in the formal and shadow banking
    system, derivative [derivative from inflation] exposure is estimated to be
    more than 700 trillion dollars." [Keith Weiner, online, Gold Bonds:
    Averting Financial Armageddon] Govt is destroying production.

    Reply
  10. If you don't mind, I'll return to this conversation when the dollar will
    have the value of a toilet paper. In the meantime I have three words for
    everyone: SUPPORT RON PAUL – the hope of free men.

    Reply
  11. @chapsroc This post contradicts the absurd claim that selflessness causes a
    harmonious, peaceful society of good will. This mindless zombie is ready to
    kill to protect the depravity of sacrifice. Say hello to Hitler.

    Reply
  12. @TeaParty1776 I think we're on the same page now. I just think that a lot
    of advocates of competing currencies say that deflation is a good thing. I
    don't think it's that bad, but I don't see it as good simply because prices
    decreases. MF was right in his concept of how money functions but wrong in
    feeling early on that a central bank was the only way to do. But he was
    actually very open to the idea of competing currencies as it turns out.

    Reply
  13. @chapsroc The Assn. of Conspiracies has delegated me to advise that public
    discussion of conspiracies will bring serious repercussions. What good is a
    conspiracy if its publicly known. A really effective conspiracy is not even
    known by its members, who believe that they are working alone. If anyone
    from the Federal Dept of Suppressing Conspiracies asks, tell them that
    there are no conspiracies, never have been and never will be because
    conspiracies are metaphysically impossible. Or so they say.

    Reply
  14. The FDIC guarantees are irrelevant. Value of the dollar and all other fiat
    currencies is heading towards zero. Eventually entire system will collapse
    and "paper" money will mean nothing. That won't hurt me since I have all my
    savings in precious metals but it is wrong and should be stopped. Money are
    supposed to be storing value. Inflation is immoral because it is stealing
    purchasing power from citizens. Fractional reserve banking is harmful now
    and was harmful then.

    Reply
  15. There was fractional reserve banking before the Fed while we had gold and
    silver backed currency. Customer money is still safe with the current
    system.

    Reply
  16. @chapsroc I'm sorry to say that you simply haven't followed MF as much as I
    have. MF had a video series called Free to Choose in which he invited the
    Fed Chairman and criticized his policies. It is very possible to have money
    supply growth without a bank, because you don't have to lend money to
    increase growth. Btw, MF never worked for Reagan, but just so you know,
    under Reagan, we had Paul Volker as chairman. Volker actually did not
    expand credit, so it wasn't much of a problem during that time

    Reply
  17. @chapsroc Kill the greedy kulaks, eh comrade? My types? You mean the people
    who can read? LOL! Hold your breath, the gold standard is coming back any
    minute.

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  18. @TeaParty1776 If everyone goes to the government and exchanges each dollar
    bill for 2 dollars, that results in 100% inflation but no change in
    purchasing power. That doesn't involve stealing money from anybody.

    Reply
  19. @chapsroc Quasi-slavery has existed for most people for most of history and
    yet, curiously enough, so has grinding poverty. The cause of production is
    man's mind, freed from govt. China has sufficient capitalism to create the
    wealth sold to us. Before that, their communism produced up to 34-67
    million murders, acc/to the NYT. But now Chinese Keynsianism is destroying
    their wealth and they, like Japan, will fail to overtake the US.

    Reply
  20. @TeaParty1776 No you are thinking about a credit bubble in which the
    government lends money to people. If we all got two dollars in exchange for
    one dollar, we would not be able to afford anything more. That's the idea
    behind eliminating inflation and deflation. If you match the money supply
    with growth, prices stay the same by definition. Right now, prices go up
    because the money supply has gone way beyond growth. With gold, prices go
    down (same purchasing power so NBD but not ideal).

    Reply
  21. @chapsroc Just exactly how is living w/the constant fear of arrest selfish?
    The lifestyle of most criminals is nasty, brutish and short, with no
    rational self-esteem, no future, a painful past and socializing w/other
    losers because honest people would spot their constant dishonesty. Your
    conventional "selfishness" is an infant's perspective of mindless,
    short-range, physical sensations. The basic moral virtues: rationality,
    productiveness, independence, integrity, honesty , justice and pride.

    Reply
  22. @nefariousgunslinger The point is you are making "illogical" and racist
    "conclusions" based on alleged facts. At least in 2012 there was a
    estimated 13,348,000 Jews. You are perpetuating "HATE" against all Jewish
    people based on less than 1% of the Jewish population.

    Reply
  23. Well look into it and read up on it. I will check out those gold backed
    checking accounts, sounds interesting :). Do they gain value as the gold
    spot goes up?

    Reply
  24. @chapsroc Is your lack of logic and your arbitrary claims part of a
    conspiracy to confuse people? Are they hiding conspiracies from us? Or the
    lack of conspiracy? Yes, thats it. They are conspiring to convince us that
    there are conspiracies. I have written this alone ,with no conspiracy. At
    least, thats my story and Im sticking to it. Unless they torture me. Or
    unless this post was composed under threat of torture, which, if it
    happened, no one will ever know. Except the conspirators. Sssshhhh!

    Reply
  25. @johnsurs22 Deflation is the needed correction to inflation. See Mises'
    Human Action and Brian Simpson's Money, Banking & The Business Cycle.

    Reply
  26. Ron Paul talks about legalizing competing currencies, not creating a new
    fed or just abolishing the old fed. If commodity backed currencies were
    legalized then the federal reserve would cease to exist.

    Reply
  27. You have to love the astounding theoretical ignorance of Friedman.
    Corporations loved this guy, and they openly marketed him in the 80's
    through Ronald Reagan which was more of a figure head then actually
    president. I never trust businessmen or bankers.

    Reply
  28. @chapsroc I think you need to do more research on what Friedman actually
    believed in with regard to money supply. He didn't suggest controlling
    anything. He advocated constant growth of money supply which has no effect
    on purchasing power, so I don't know what you're complaining about. Also,
    supply side economics does not refer to money supply; it refers to actual
    production supply.

    Reply
  29. @chapsroc Reagan's small increase in capitalism was the basic cause. China
    did aid in circulating our fiat money. However, our fiat money & bank
    accounts shifted our economy to excessive consumption relative to
    production. Ie, disequilibrium, which has grown. Imagine a man lifting a
    bulky CRT TV, shifting his center of gravity and having no habit of walking
    like that. Oops! Whoops!

    Reply
  30. @chapsroc American Indians were slightly more advanced than the Stone Age,
    with no private property, no concept of an individual person or individual
    rights; the tribe, rather than reality, as the framework for their
    primitive ,short-range reasoning, and warfare as the normal method of
    getting material values, including slaves. They had no right to forcibly
    stop the advance of the rational, individual rights culture of Western
    civilization. They benefited greatly from it.

    Reply
  31. If the Government were to increase taxes by 100% would you blame capitalism
    when businesses failed? Of course not, that wouldn't make sense. If the Fed
    were to increase the money supply by 200% so all business' savings are cut
    in half would it be true capitalism? By the same token, no. The Federal
    reserve, by nature, is government subsidized control over the businesses
    ability to save. In America we're so busy with freedom to consume that
    we've forgotten freedom to save is equally important

    Reply
  32. Economic trends can be identified & predicted. Their beginnings and ends
    cannot be predicted because man has free will. The refusal to sacrifice is
    not greed because Individuals own their own lives free and clear with no
    obligations except for their chosen actions. Selfish people are not
    withholding something owed to others. Civilization requires the recognition
    that man is morally free of man, that each man is a moral end in himself to
    himself. No one is another person's moral end.

    Reply

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