Hi Cody; I have been trying to learn all I can about the federal reserve system. As far as I can see it is a scam which was never ratified by the states. I agree that it must be abolished and some sort of money system based on real wealth not printing press paper needs to replace it. I am a 65 year old dentist who has invested in my own portfolio of stocks including big banks. However, I am willing to take my lumps and am against all these bailouts even though I stand to gain by being bailed out by some of them. I want to encourage you to keep speaking out. I like your libertarian foundation and am comforted in knowing that there are young people like yourself that know what is going on. I seldom meet individuals my age who can carry on an intelligent conversation on the duties of government and what is happening to our country. I do meet a lot of young people in the dental school where I now teach. I am encouraged when I meet young adults like yourself who know what is happening to our freedom. Keep speaking out. The future of our country depends on it. You are speaking for me and for many others who are frustrated and concerned. My prayers are with you, John Schoonenberg

I agree with you that the Illuminati is upon us. They are destroying the economies of the world to ensure the Greatest Depression, which will make sure that the prophecies foretold in the Books of Daniel and of Revelations are seemingly realized. If that happens desperate nations will be forced into World War III, as Germany was in the first two World Wars. WWIII shall result in the culmination of a century plan by defendants of the elitist ideology that created the defunct League of Nations, which of course was followed by the corrupt and inept United Nations after WWII, which sadly, is the model for New World Order upon us. A one world government controlled by old money, enacted when technology caught up to the selfish minds of the elites. One major policy of the NWO that I partly agree with is population control, but only by intelligent thought out reasoning and not by poisoning products that have been rumored by conspiracy sources. So Cody, the Illuminati apparently and unfortunately is real, but the population is too preoccupied with reality programs and sports teams to care about their future. The dumbing down of society by design of Zionism.

You replace the FED with the gold standard- just as the Constitution mandates.

I agree completely. Cody keep up the great work and stay on those rubber spined partners on Happy Hour. I am a great fan of Murray Rothbard and loved his book "The Case Against the Fed". If you haven't you need to see the Ludwig Von Mises website. To Mister Rabbit, we don't need the Fed. A Gold standard or privately created money would be infinitely better than allowing the government to print money as it wishes, thus devaluing our currency and putting us in positions we are in right now. Taxpayers should NOT be responsible for the bad decisions of others. Government should only protect the individual rights of its citizens and not be in business to take from one group and give to another.

As you pointed out, the FED is less than 100 years old. This is less than 50% of the lifetime of the US. Have they done a better job than the previously free running economy? Before the problem can be fixed long term, someone needs to objectively evaluate their performance in history. I hope all the professors are taking good notes.

Your "Bold Stuff" make sense CW. Very good takes Cody. Starting to hear that that foreclosure then re-financed sub-prime mortgages are yet re-defaulting at over a 50% rate. Could this be why the Paulson isn't feeding them any money? And why Barney Frank is really sore at him? BTW: "Wallstreet Whiz Kid",, oh brother.

you are uneducated

Mr. Willard, I caught Happy Hour for the first time today and was laughing my ass off with your using the term "welfare" 10+ times today. Thus, found your blog and am pleasantly surprised with your Federal Reserve ideology! Please continue to fight the good fight! When are you going to have Peter Schiff with EuroPacific on your show? Jim Rogers would be another good interview? Rogers has been stifled by poor journalism and interviewing skills lately on Bloomberg & CNBC international. Your shows producer and director would be pleasantly surprised by a rating push associated with a Schiff or Rogers interview. They might also find more converts, like myself, from Fast Money to your folks show. Cheers! Erik C

These Fed guys are crazy. Auto loans, mortgages, commercial real estate development loans, credit card loans. What's next besides jobs building bridges to nowhere and scaring people out of the U.S. dollar and treasuries? There is no way to maintain a stable account when the Fed is the market! They rig the system to benefit their friends. I've come to the conclusion it's easier to trust in other country management teams, even if that means shorting their stocks or buying their currencies.

Cody, I do agree with you 100%. It is my concern, however, that we have many individuals denouncing the evil Fed agenda but no one seems to suggest a way in which we can attain the goal of replacing the Central Bank with something that may work for "We the people". Honestly, voting, will not do the trick. Simply because both the republican and democratic parties support the Federal Reserve System. The closed bi-partisan electoral system is designed to preserve the banking cartel. Congress may argue against it but the only member that comes close to passing legislation to limit the FED is Mr. Ron Paul. Bravo! Mr. Paul - You are a true leader! So instead of writing all over the place against the intentionally flawed system. I invite you, and all others who share your view, to use your space to educate and guide us through a plan of action that will allow "We the people" to regain control of the monetary system. Without action - your valuable insight will be no more than dust in the wind.

Thank you Cody! Great Article. It is very refreshing to hear someone who really believes in free markets and the Constitution. I am so sick of those socialist/Keynesians that are on all day long at CNBC, a main reason why I switched to Fox.

Private bank clearinghouses, that don't have the power to inflate the money supply with fiat money is a better alternative. Banks will have to hold more reserves or the depositors will pull their money. If they risk too much depositor money (make loans), the depositors will pull their money out. The more risky a bank, the less likely depositors would put their money in. Bankers would be held at the mercy of the depositors. The closer the bank was to 100% reserves, the easier it would handle any bank runs. This would greatly hinder the inflation pump from being primed. It would also largely prevent any deflation, since the banks would hold more reserves. We had no central bank for quite some time before 1913 (1837-1913). And we did just fine without it. However, I would say the National Banking Act (1863) spelled the beginning of the end for truly decentralized private banking. The Thomas Jefferson wing of the revolutionaries hated the idea of a central bank (Bank of England), while the Alexander Hamilton wing pushed for it. Jefferson won the first round of debate when the constitution was ratified. However, eventually the 1st Bank of the U.S. was chartered. Jefferson didn't renew the charter. And the 2nd Bank of the U.S. was not renewed under President Jackson. In 1913, the Hamilton idea of central banking won out and has ever since. Via centralized banking, we believe we've successfully removed all risk from banking (i.e. the loss of depositors funds). But we've done it at the terrible cost of never ending inflation, expansion of central gov't power, and more wealth siphoned off the working/middle class to those more politically connected. In truth, we've had plenty of central banking panics, but we've just inflated the money supply and hidden the losses, spreading (socializing) them to all who hold dollars or dollar denominated assets. The economic progress we've had (producing more goods with less effort), has helped to offset the tremendous loss of purchasing power. The bummer, is that our economic progress would've been even greater had we not fooled ourselves with inflation based gov't controlled central banking. All fiat currencies eventually end up worth zero. We'll get back to private currencies eventually, when the gov't currencies are worthless. That likely won't be a nice transition. It'll be closer to total mayhem. But private currencies would emerge out of necessity from the market.

Cody, Why not repeal the 17th amendment and take the IRS and direct election of Senators with the FED? We could go to the Fair Tax and have the state legislatures once again appoint their Senators. Once that is done all that is left is to free the markets from government interference and fix the Supreme Court by substituting the Constitution for the phony constitutional law we now live under.

Guess what Cody, I'm a homeowner(have been BEFORE the bubble) and am getting NOTHING out of all this bailout junk. It has been me keeping myself in my house, not the buffoons in government/the Fed. So please, get off the whole renter/saver is > homeowner(who obviously is irresponsible) bandwagon. I like most of what you have to say, but this is a bit old.

Right on Cody ! This inept insanity is tanking our country. These stupid buffoons are making this up as they go along because they don't have a clue about what would really help. Sadly, they are not about to waste this "15 minutes of fame" time doing nothing. The FED is just wildly guessing and making up fiscal policy as they go along. Lurching and jerking like a dying rabbit. This is terribly sad. When they act in desperation like this, it doesn't reassure me, it SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME. I can spot panic when I see it. And I see it. I can smell it. It only makes me clutch my wallet all the tighter.

You need to get Peter Schiff on Happy Hour. The two of you discussing Free Markets and destroying the Fed would be a sight to see. EndTheFed.us

John Kennedy wanted to end the Federal Reserve but died before he could get it done. Today, they rule the financial world, with the public hanging on their every word. It is one of the ways that "Washington" created an entity to serve a good purpose, has now outlived its usefulness, but will never give up its power. The average American couldn't care less about the "Fed", but rather worries how to keep their job, pay their bills and feed and support their family. Nothing the average American says or does has an effect on the "Fed". In the last couple months, the United States economy could have completely imploded, yet many would have been waiting for a response by the Federal Reserve. Time to take back control of our government, one politian at a time.

Corruption is so common that it is expected when ordinary businesses or citizens interact with government officials. Government officials have broad or poorly defined powers, and the line between what is legal and illegal can be difficult to draw. The use of governmental powers by government officials for legitimate private gain or use of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government but use large donations to buy favors from political entities. Just bribery alone in America is estimated at about $1 trillion, and the burden of corruption falls disproportionately on the bottom billion people living in extreme poverty. Why do you even care Cody? Just because corruption also undermines economic development by generating considerable distortions and inefficiency? America love it or leave it! Love your articals young man!

I still feel like, had the SEC been doing their job, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with. .....and where was the SEC while Madoff was stealing - sleeping with his daughter? As far as the Federal Reserve, the problem with it is, it's just the government division of Goldman Sachs, and as the saying goes "What's good for Goldman Sachs is good for the country". Don't remember which politician, but I want to immediately nominate him for President. He suggested a 2 month totally tax free holiday. I'm all for it as I'd love to have a little of my own money, I can't afford to buy any more banks.

"We’ll get some rule of law back into this country…and it will happen sooner rather than later. And that means over the next 3,000 days or so" Once it has been established that contracts are meaningless and modifiable at governmental whim, it will take a lot longer than 3,000 days or so for trust to come back. Attitudes formed during the Depression (the other one) are just now dying off with the last of that generation. Look for the degradation of contracts to take decades for recovery, if recovery ever does occur.

Good one Cody. in answer to 6ftrabbit; go back to the gold and silver standard. The money floating around in America needs to be backed by somthing that will always hold its value. Gold.

How is it that these financial policy makers can hold an office (which is not voted for) and write checks to companies from our money with out our ok that they have deep relationships with and used to work for? It seems odd that HP Mr tres. used to work for Goldman and in the banking community and yet is give the green light to write billions in checks to them with no oversight via the TARP? Who is actually running the show....does our system work they way we thought...

Not to bust your nuggets and maybe it's common info but who did you vote for? I keep seeing "you guys voted for" not "we voted for" implying you don't vote or don't vote for republican or democrat...who are you voting for?

Markets themselves are perfectly capable of determinig interest rates. The fed's policy of monetary and credit expansion is the sole reason for the recession we are in now. Without all the free flowing credit avaiable the dishonest crooks would not have been able take advantage to the extent that they did. The fed is directly responsible and now have more power due to their incompetence. It truly is mindboggling. The fact that there are more people in the news discussing these issues, like yourself, gives me hope that maybe their time is coming to end. But it seems the more the FED and BIG GOVERNMENT screw up, the more these socialits make people believe that we need THE FED and BIG GOVERNMENT to fix everything. They gain more power and control through complete incompetence... disgusting

POOP!