QUESTION: I found your history of the Federal Reserve very insightful which nobody else has put together. Can you explain your comment that the ECB could go bankrupt but not the Fed?
Thank you very much.
HB
ANSWER: Here is a full set of $1 bills with each issued by its respective Federal Reserve branch. I would like to thank John C for having this framed and sent to me as a gift. The Federal Reserve is independent whereas it has its own authority to increase or decrease its power to create elastic money. I understand that many see this as evil, but it was absolutely essential. During an economic crash, people hoard their cash and do not spend it. Consequently, banks start to fail because they lent money out long-term as in mortgages but the demands by depositors are immediate. That is why a bank would fail in the midst of a run. Its assets are tied up in loans which they then recall and cannot sell the real estate to get liquid.
Right now we have had that problem where the velocity of money has been declining from 2007 until Trump was elected, but then it took a nose-dive in a waterfall event thanks to COVID lockdowns and rising unemployment. The Fed’s “elastic” money means they can create money in electronic form purchasing in debt which in theory injects cash into the system. However, because Congress has been so corrupt, the requirement to buy government debt has not directly helped the economy as it was originally intended to do in 1913 when it would only by corporate debt. That prevented companies from going bust and laying off people because they did not have the immediate cash.
The ECB requires the approval of all member states whereas the Federal Reserve does not need to go back to Congress to beg for money. Not all central banks are created equal. Yes, the banks were the shareholders because the Fed was supposed to be a bailout for the banks and that was not to involve taxpayer’s money. However, the politicians could not keep their fingers out of the cookie jar. The government began to take over the Fed and the chairman was then appointed politically and the control of private banks has been reduced. The fake quote that people use that Rothschild said “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.” The problem with this quote is a simple fact it was made up in 1913.
I am unaware of any banknote issued by Rothschilds in the United States or Britain. This quote, which is widely used, appears in a letter of T.C. Daniel (1857 – 1923) to President W. Wilson dated May 8, 1913. I cannot find any source where Mayer Rothschild ever said such a thing nor can I find any paper money issued by the Rothschild Bank. I would love to buy one if anyone ever discovers it.
Nonetheless, the Bank of England issued banknotes beginning in 1694. In 1921, the Bank of England gained a legal monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, a process that started with the Bank Charter Act of 1844 when the ability of other banks to issue notes was restricted. I have an extensive collection of monetary instruments that are historically important. There are no Rothschild notes that I am aware of during this period. Consequently, I cannot find the source of this Rothschild quote, nor can I even find an example of a Rothschild banknote from the period in question. So I fail to see where Rothschild would have made such a boost when he did not have control of any nation’s money supply.
This is the problem. People simply hate bankers, as I have fought against, but at the same time, they are making up things that are not true and I have to wonder if this is deliberately done to create misinformation.
