Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, whose 1651 book Leviathan argues that average men are so brutish they need a ruler and state to keep things in order.
Leviathan is the great all-devouring beast of the sea found mainly in Jewish religious literature. So Hobbes clearly understood the nature of rulers and the state, but argued for its implementation anyway.
The Federal Reserve Bank's appetite makes the mythic Leviathan seem anorexic. The Fed already controls every penny in the USA through control of the banks and now the United States Treasury is going to let the Fed, a private company, police the entire financial sector. EVERYTHING. Stocks, futures, derivatives, insurance, and anything else the Fed would like to sniff out to devour.
The administration says this will make the market more free, implying that rules and regulations presently in place have caused or, at least exacerbated, the present difficulty. Yet, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen, Jr, is expected to say in his speech later today, "I do not believe it is fair or accurate to blame our regulatory structure for the current turmoil.” He may see the illogic in this statement, jammed as it is against the fact that he is changing those rules. If the present rules didn't cause the situation, why are we changing them? Shouldn't we be looking for the real problem?
Of course, we found the real problem, only it is posing as a knight in shining armor! The Fed stepped in to rescue Bear Stearns. JP Morgan Bank, one of the owners of the Fed, offered Bear Stearns for $2 a share on March 16 though it had traded over $75 a share at the beginning of March. Shareholder discontent (!!) caused Morgan to raise the price to $10 a share. But don't feel bad that Morgan had to pony up another $800 million, tax payers will eventually pay for it, since they're on the hook for $30 billion in bad debt generated by Bear Stearns.
Nice deal! Cause the problem by keeping interest rates low and lending rules lax and then scoop up the idiots who follow the rules at 3 cents on the dollar!
This is not to absolve the leadership of Bear Stearns of wholesale recklessness and gullibility. Prudent people would have remembered the Savings and Loans crisis of the 80's and 90's. President Bush certainly should have remembered! But perhaps brother Neil is persona non grata at the White House.
The Fed will have the power to take over every financial institution in the USA. Every stock, commodity, and futures exchange. Every insurance company and credit union. Every bond house and every small bank--it already owns the big ones. The owners of the Fed will own everything worth owning in the USA. Remember, the Fed is a PRIVATE COMPANY!
Call your Senator and Representative! Stop this madness now.
STAND UP NOW or you will be buying Kool Aid from the Fed and you will be happy to drink it!
LEARN ABOUT THE BANKING SYSTEM.
1 comments:
NICE POST.Never quite looked at the Fed that way before.
I referenced Hobbes in a blog after having read ''Tale of the Tub'' by Swift. I thought they were antagonists.
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