Charleston - Solidus.Center

The Great Immoderation: How the Fed Is Sowing the Next Recession

Post Date March 12, 2015

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

By David Stockman of David Stockman’s Contra Corner.

In February 2004, Ben Bernanke famously declared the business cycle had been tamed and took a bow on behalf of enlightened monetary management, claiming it was the principal source of this beneficent development. Exactly 55 months later, of course, he terrorized the congressional leadership and a clueless president with the frightening proposition that a Great Depression 2.0 was just around the corner.

As to why he had been so stupendously wrong, Bernanke did not say. Nor did he explain why the brilliantly “stable” US economy had suddenly stumbled to …

Greenspan’s Insulting Admission of Fed Culpability

Post Date March 7, 2015

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

As if to thumb his nose at the millions of Americans who have undergone long-term financial distress since the late 1990s due to the interventionist monetary policies he implemented, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the original engineer of the Fed’s bubble/burst economic paradigm, indirectly admitted to CNBC’s Kelly Evans that the Fed has created unsustainable asset bubbles that could burst when it allows interest rates to rise.

Greenspan defended the Fed’s promotion of these bubbles, though, stating though a smile, “It’s good, not bad”:

Greenspan noted …

Sound Money and the Ring of Truth

Post Date March 5, 2015

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

Submitted by Guy Christopher of MoneyMetals.com.

We Americans no longer carry gold, silver, or copper in our pockets and purses as our grandparents did. But we still carry the history, legacy and spirit of those coins in our language – with more meaning than you might imagine.

“Sound money” has a clear message recognized for centuries around the world. It describes the musical, metallic ring of a gold, silver, or copper coin dropped on any hard surface of glass, stone, wood, or metal. Sound money literally refers …

Solidus.Center Discusses the Fed with Senior Mises Fellows

Post Date January 18, 2015

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

On a special broadcast on Kinetic HiFi radio, I discussed with Solidus.Center board members and Senior Mises Institute Fellows Mark Thornton and Walter Block the history of the Fed, how the Fed harms the average American, and how the monetary system would function if the Fed were abolished. (Click “read more” at the bottom of the post if the player doesn’t appear.)

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Seth Mason, Charleston SC

Solidus.Center Founder Seth Mason on Fighting to Limit the Fed

Post Date January 14, 2015

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

In a recent interview on the Lions of Liberty Podcast, I described why the Fed has become an impediment to prosperity for the average American, what we at Solidus.Center are doing to promote the limitation of the Fed’s influence on the economy, and why I’m personally invested in our cause. (Click “read more” at the bottom of the post if the player doesn’t appear.)

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Don’t miss my live Federal Reserve group discussion with Solidus.Center board members and Mises Institute Senior …

Limiting the Fed Would Diffuse Derivative “Time Bombs”

Post Date December 16, 2014

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

In a 2002 letter to shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett called the trillions of dollars of derivatives held by American banks “time bombs”. The “Oracle of Omaha’s” dire prognostication proved correct in 2008, when the collapse of prices of the assets to which the lion’s share of outstanding derivatives were tied led to a financial crisis that plunged the American economy into a period of economic malaise not seen since the Great Depression.

Derivatives are indeed “ticking time bombs” in this era of Fed-inspired asset …

Ratigan: The Fed Bought the Big Banks’ Garbage for $14 Trillion

Post Date December 5, 2014

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

In the following video recorded in the wake of the financial crisis, Morning Meeting host Dylan Ratigan explained that the Fed bought the Big Banks’ toxic loans for $14 trillion of the American people’s money, an enormous debt that will have to be paid back in the form of inflation and/or taxes. Furthermore, he noted, the Fed stubbornly refused to reveal exactly what they paid for.

Ratigan highlighted two important points: 1) The Fed not only enables massive malinvestment that yields asset bubbles that ultimately pop …

Thomas Sowell: Federal Reserve a “Cancer”

Post Date November 28, 2014

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

The following interview with economist and Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Sowell is one of the more impactful anti-Federal Reserve videos on the web.

Sowell made three salient points in the interview: 1) The federal government allowed the establishment of the Fed at the behest of elite bankers such as J.P. Morgan. 2) The worst economic crises this nation has faced have been on the Fed’s watch. 3) The Fed doesn’t necessarily have to be replaced with any other institution.

The interview also demonstrated the unfortunate ignorance of the …

The Interventionist Fed Must Be Ended

Post Date November 17, 2014

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

The Federal Reserve is comprised of economic “interventionists” who ostensibly manipulate the money supply and interest rates for the betterment of the economy and the prosperity of the American people. In reality, the Fed’s monetary manipulation causes severe distortions in the economy that benefit a select few while harming a large swath of Americans.

The interventionist Fed, which claims that there’s a tradeoff between inflation and unemployment, often promotes the former. Modern U.S. economic history, however, demonstrates that high unemployment can occur during periods of high inflation. …

A G.O.P. Takeover of the Senate Would Mean More Scrutiny of the Fed?

Post Date November 4, 2014

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Author Seth Mason

Category Solidus.Center

Nasdaq.com published an article by Victoria McGrane of Dow Business News that argued that a G.O.P. takeover of the Senate today would pressure the federal government to “put the Fed under the microscope”. As evidence, Ms. McGrane quoted Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America:

If the Republicans take control of the Senate and thus have control of both the House and the Senate–two words for the Federal Reserve: Watch out.

McGrane also noted that, under a Republican-led Senate, Federal Reserve-foe Richard Shelby of …