The Federal Reserve Should Be Abolished

Thanks for accepting imabench. I am taking the stance that the Fed needs to be ended for the sake of preserving economic prosperity and controlling the unbridled greed of the international banksters. My position rests on three main premises: that the Fed is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, SECRETIVE, and HARMFUL. UNCONSTITUTIONAL This is quite possibly the simplest way to definitely prove that the Fed should be abolished. After all, if an entity is unconstitutional, it cannot exist unless the Constitution is amended to allow for it. In the case of the Fed, Article I Section 8 explicitly delegates the power to “coin money and regulate the value thereof” to Congress. So then, you may ask, is there some sort of hidden amendment or law that somehow doesn’t violate this clause? The answer to that is no: the Fed essentially possesses a power specifically reserved for Congress. Even if the Fed were acting in the best interest of the American people (a far cry from what they are doing), their very existence would still be unconstitutional as per Article I Section 8. I challenge my opponent to justify the Fed’s clear violation of this portion of the Constitution. SECRETIVE Theoretically, if my opponent cannot prove that the Constitution permits the Fed to exist, my argument for abolition is completely valid. However, there is still a lot to be said about the Fed’s evil manipulation of money in order to benefit the international banks. The worst part about all this is how much secrecy has shrouded the Fed’s immoral actions. In its nearly 100 year history, the Fed had never once been audited until 2011, in the wake of the massive financial crisis. The findings were mind-boggling: nearly $16 trillion dollars in secret bailouts for banks across the world, all while the small banks and average American citizens were left to struggle. As Sen. Bernie Sanders noted, “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.” None of these bailouts were ever approved by Congress, even though the Fed is the principal agency containing the U.S. money supply. However, these under-the-table transactions encompass the secretive nature of the Fed, all while it remains unaccountable to the federal government. Despite having “Federal” in its name, the Fed is not at all controlled by the government, but rather the strongest private banks. Being that the Fed is simply a cartel of banking corporations, what is the logical objective of the Fed? Turning a profit, of course. Their malicious agenda is hidden by the fact that the banks that own the Fed also have shares in the major media outlets, thus suppressing any damaging information from leaking. It is completely mind-boggling that the institution controlling the nation’s monetary policy is not only unregulated by Congress, but for nearly a century went without even an audit of its records. This kind of behavior is downright criminal, as it permits the Fed to do what it wishes with its money to make a profit and benefit the banking families who control it. There is no evidence suggesting that the Federal Reserve has the interest of the American people in mind (no trillion dollar bailouts for all the struggling citizens). This leads to the conclusion that the Fed deceives and exists in dangerous secrecy, therefore promoting even further grounds for its abolition. HARMFUL Now comes the brunt of my contention. The Federal Reserve’s inner mechanisms and unbridled control foster a boom-and-bust economic cycle which predictably leaves the international banksters well-off. To illustrate, the Great Depression will be examined as to the Fed’s role. In short: the Fed caused it, as chairman Bernanke has admitted himself. But the same corrupt actions taking place then still bear relevance today. During the prosperous periods of the early and mid 1920’s, the Fed continuously printed money and increased the money supply, with low interest rates as well. The abundance of money promoted widespread buying and loans, which in turn led to economic boom of the “roaring twenties”. During this boom, the connected banksters and other insiders knew about the Fed’s goals. Therefore, they bought lots of stock and assets during the boom period. Then in 1929, the Fed subversively rose the interest rate. This planned “bust” portion of the cycle prompted the insiders to exit the market. In a long cycle of events, the stocks and loans which were previously bought up in mass were sold rapidly once the high interest set in. The Great Depression is almost never blamed on the Fed when taught in schools, but in reality the Fed’s artificial manipulation of boom and bust cycle was the cause of the Great Depression, as Bernanke admitted. The same principles translated to the recent economic crisis, only this time some of the Fed’s insiders did fail and were given massive bailouts to compensate. I ask my opponent to really think about whether such a deceptive and fraudulent system, which has historically allowed the banksters and other insiders to stay wealthy even in economic crisis, is meritorious and deserves to be kept. Secondly, the $14 trillion national debt is entirely present because of how the Fed operates. To say that the United States spends massive amounts of money is incorrect. Because the Fed has a monopoly on the nation’s money supply and gold reserves, the government relies on the Fed for its money. The Fed makes a profit every time the government needs money, and with the massive rise in government spending and new agencie over the years this need for money has grown. More need for money = more profit for the Fed. If the government asks for $1 billion dollars, the Fed “prints” the money, and charges the government interest in paying back this loan. This process repeats, and the eventual result is huge profits for the banking families and a large deficit in the US budget. Because our currency is backed by nothing, the Fed can create worthless paper notes or computerized entries. Such practices promote more reckless government spending due to the ease of obtaining money. But how does the federal government obtain this money to pay off the Fed loans? Simple: income tax. That’s right, when people say how their tax dollars were wasted on the bailout or the war in Iraq, they’re wrong. Instead, 25-35% of people’s incomes are demanded every year by the IRS under the threat of strict penalty. The paid income tax then exclusively goes towards paying off the interest on the Fed’s loans. Of course, now that the currency has become so devalued, income tax doesn’t make much of a dent in paying off the immense national debt. Now, I want my opponent to consider whether it is right or necessary that millions of hard-working Americans are required to pay nearly a quarter of their yearly income for a purpose that could easily be scrapped if the Fed didn’t exist. Why should the American people be threatened with salary garnishment to their modest salaries so that they can contribute to the overblown profits of the bankers? It’s no coincidence that income tax was introduced in 1913 along with the Fed. Income tax should be abolished along with the Fed that it keeps in power, since it takes out massive chunks of people’s earnings to foster a private corporation that makes a profit from collecting interest from the governments? Simply put, both income tax and the Fed should be scrapped in the interest of economic prosperity. With a reduction of the currently circulating Federal Reserve notes, plus return of monetary policy control to the Treasury and Congress, our national deficit could be obliterated in a short amount of time. With no interest rates on the money, there would be no need for income tax either, promoting generally increased prosperity among the people. I intend to focus more on the solution once the Fed is abolished, but for now I have outlined a compelling case proving that the Fed’s detriment to the economy justifies its end.