Like Ben Bernanke today, Nicholas Biddle cultivated the veneer of a benign civil servant calculating serenely far above the political fray. In reality he, like Bernanke, was up to his neck in the backroom game of power.
When Biddle’s bureaucratic cradle was rocked, he quickly morphed into a Machiavellian monster. Keep that in mind as Ben Bernanke gets progressively cornered by Ron Paul and the bourgeoning anti-Fed movement.
When you hear about the Federal Reserve Transparency Act getting stalled in committee, think of Daniel Webster, bought and paid for with central bank money. When you read Fed apologia in the New York Times, The Economist, and the Wall Street Journal denouncing the “reckless populism” of the Act, think of the newspaper editors in Biddle’s pocket.
If you really believe that Ron Paul and his Micro-Crusade is going to change the Federal Reserve System then I think you are sadly mistaken. I wish he could but there is just too much power in that one horrible wealth destroying body. The Fed has all politicians from the president to the senate to the house to the courts to the regulators completely under their thumbs. They can make or break ANY commercial and now investment bank in any congressional district they choose. Look at bailouts: 3 major investment banks, 2 get saved one gets hosed, I wonder why?
If a person with the drive and personality of Andrew Jackson had a tough time with the power of the president at the time, then the Mighty Ron Paul certainly isn’t going to be successful even if he has 535 signatures on his bill.
And what if RP manages to get a bill through, the Republicans and Democrats are going to water that thing into nothing. Then if it gets that far and some supposed uninterested party does perform the audit and finds all the corruption the Fed is up to then what?
Appoint a Blue Ribbon commission of other uninterested parties to craft a proposal and then back to congress and around we go.
I am sure there will be some low level econo-stats slob who has to do a 9 month stint in prison while some upper level econo-stats guys get “Reassigned” with the same pay and benefits and that will be the end of it.
I don’t think Ron Paul can end the Fed. In fact, I don’t think libertarians in general have a chance of beating Big Government. We’re outnumbered and outresourced by the statists, plus the population is too stupid to understand libertarian ideas. Robert Higgs is similarly pessimistic.
Nevertheless, what other choice do we have but to fight?
It isn’t realistic that Congress can end the Fed. Too many people profit from the current corrupt system. The banksters can always profitably lobby to block reform.
The best you can do is protect yourself from theft. Invest your savings in gold and silver. Boycott the income tax by working off-the-books.
Sit back and enjoy Leviathan chocking itself to death while its mindless drones and useful idiots run around thinking more of the same is the only way out. It has already started and is supremely amusing.
I am deeply cynical but I find deep satisfaction in telling people “told you so”.
I think with the advent of the Internet things are really looking up. We can’t know how technology will affect things over the next few decades. Here are some possibilities. Net-based Microsecession
Excellent article! Have you read The Creature From Jekyll Island, by any chance? This article reminded me of a smaller version of a particular chapter in that book, devoted to Jackson.