Jim Grant on the Federal Reserve

Via ZeroHedge, we discovered a must-read article by Jim Grant, published in the March 23rd edition of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer (Vol 30, No 6d):

In the not quite 100 years since the founding of your institution, America has exchanged central banking for a kind of central planning and the gold standard for what I will call the Ph.D. standard. I regret the changes and will propose reforms, or, I suppose, re-reforms, as my program is very much in accord with that of the founders of this institution. Have you ever read the Federal Reserve Act? The authorizing legislation projected a body “to provide for the establishment of the Federal Reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper and to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes.” By now can we identify the operative phrase? Of course: “for other purposes.”

Read the whole article.

More from Toby Baxendale
Can the Manipulation of Interest Rates Create Wealth?
The Cobden Centre’s Chairman, Toby Baxendale, explores whether cheaper money will make...
Read More
One reply on “Jim Grant on the Federal Reserve”
  1. says: Paul Marks

    Sir if only your post was a April Fool – if only the Federal Reserve did not really exist.

Comments are closed.