hahahahahaha…..yay Alan!!!!

Can we say there is a new sheriff in town?

Why yes, yes we can.

Go Representative Grayson!

Digg it folks!

Question – was Kohn sworn in?

Still can’t understand how someone can go before congress and refuse to provide information.

Contempt has to be charged, and then enforced.
In recent history these have been sticky points.

I love that man!!

That dude Kohn gave a BS answer. Does anyone for a moment believe that an institution wouldn’t take free money from the Fed because it might be published who they are? Get real. We’re talking about money here. Admittedly I am not an expert on this, but I can not imagine any financial institution would hesitate for even a moment for this reason.

Please pardon my ignorance, as I’m not up on my congressional, but isn’t there any kind of contempt charge that can be filed against these people for refusing to answer a question like this? Is Kohn there by subpoena or direct request and not because he volunteered out of the goodness of his heart?

oops – “congressional law” Preview is my friend

Cant we lock this guy up for something?

Isn’t the FED an independent agency and not a government however that works. It is my thought that congress ought to look at taking it back over since we are liable for what it does.
145 hrs & 35 min

Andrew Jackson warned there would be days like this. Where are men like Old Hickory when you need them.

I think the Fed is a group of central banks, privately owned, but with powers granted by Congress to print money and control the world economy…they are extremely secretive…So they can print money and give it to themselves and/or to whomever they wish to and then charge it back to the taxpayers with interest. The word “Federal” is misleading.

I keep wondering if they have given tons of it to their rich cronies who lost billions in the Madoff type of corruption, so that their personal lifestyles remain intact….

I hate getting forked by these crooks.

I can’t even imagine the culture of secrecy that lets the Fed think that what they do is “secret”. I’d like the new administration to make a statement that how the U.S. government acts on our behalf is not a secret (with the usual “except in case of national security”). One of the biggest contributors to the economic crisis is the degree of secrecy throughout the financial institutions, banks, hedge funds, as well as possible secret market manipulation done by the Fed. We need some sunshine.

Grayson’s got one hell of a set of brass balls !
We could use many more like him.

And way to go Blue America ,for your support of his candidacy !

More sunshine, less reckless speculatin’.

{{{Norske}}} saw the comments last thread. Take care from a fellow Bemidji Lumberjack….

Didn’t Grayson have a campaign ad showing an empty warehouse and say something to the effect that it could have been filled with money?
Imagine 1.2 trillion -whew.
145 hrs & 16 min

PEBO spoke of maintaining transparency in his administration ,lets hope this is one area he was referring to.

When Bernanke’s term is up Obama can nominate someone to replace him but at this point?
145 hrs & 12 min

Exactly. The Fed was created back in 1910 by banking interests to operate as a cabal masquerading as a federal agency. The people in congress know all about the charade yet they go along with it.

The Fed was created to allow the big eastern banks to ensure their profits in the face of many independent local banks that were forming back in the early days of the last century. They allow the government to perpetuate the myth that it is controlling the money supply when in reality the Fed prints money which it uses to buy government bonds thereby reducing the value of the existing money and taxing American workers and retirees through a hidden tax, inflation. Right now the money we use is backed by nothing, not a goddamn thing whereas it was once backed by gold and silver.

The Fed can keep on issuing money but at some point we’re gonna be where Weimar Germany was in 1923.

I don’t know for a fact, but I think that PEBO could ask for Bernanke’s resignation at any time. And even if Bernanke could say no, the “ask” would deal him a real blow.

Having said that, there’s no public or pundit pressure against the FRB, so I don’t see that anything will happen.

Just sent Alan some scratch.

Dubya just bought a $3.5 million house in Dallas on a $200K annual salary. Do you think he can swing the mortgage payments on it and the Brush Ranch and the Paraguay parcel? Its gonna be hard, unless his blind trust made some good investments. Hope Dubya didn’t take a big hit in the stock market like the rest of us.

Some people, like W & Donald Trump, are never allowed to go bankrupt, regardless of their balance sheets.

The Israelis threatened to (but didn’t when we capitulated) refuse our largess when we had the temerity to question how they planed to spend it. I guess the Fed knows best how to give our money away too.
Reminds me of the answer I received from adults when I questioned their demands as a child.

“Because I said so, that’s why.”

W and his family are richer than God. Even if they took a huge hit, it wouldn’t affect him. Believe me, if the Bushco group took financial hits, they made sure they got it back out of the bailout monies.

Last night on the PBS documentary “The Ascent of Money” Paul Volker said that paper money’s value is based on “a con game–or a game of confidence” that tests the public’s faith in the system itself on a daily basis.

Contempt of congress. It’s what they tried Pete Seeger for in the 1950s. He was called to testify before the American Inquisition (House Unamerican Activities Committee, HUAC), and testified about his participation in the Communist Party of the 1930s. He refused to testify about other people’s membership and activities.

He was tried and convicted, appealed and the conviction was tossed on a technicality. The US Attorney declined to retry him.

What it comes down to is that Congress has to file charges and the US Atty for the district has to prosecute the charges. Jail time follows conviction. Calling the process long-and-drawn-out is like defining a serial killer as a mild social deviant.

OT Geitner’s confirmation hearing moved to 1/21
144 hrs & 55 min

Sounds like he’s in trouble…

Volcker is essentially correct. Money is worth whatever we say it’s worth. What’s usually ignored is that this is also true of hard (backed by some valuable commodity) currency. A $5 gold piece from the late 19th Century has at least three values:

It’s worth $5 as coin-of-realm.

It’s worth whatever the spot price is for that weight of 20 K gold alloy.

It’s worth whatever its value is as an artifact.

Note that those three values are not the same. In fact, the second and third may well be different for different people. I’m not a coin collector, so my values for 2 and 3 are the same. Backing a currency with precious metals (the usual approach) doesn’t solve the value-of-money problem. Look at what happened to currency values when new lodes of precious metals were found.

Money is worth what we agree it is worth.

Amazing.

Each and every one of the people who lied in front of congress needs to be called back, put under oath, and asked the same questions they were asked the first time, including Gonzo. The RNC cannot pay for their counsel, they can’t get away with I don;t remember any more, and if they continue to stonewall they are charged and prosecuted.

Enough with this nonsense. And if the GOP traitors on the HJC and the relevant Senate committees want to act like idiots, let them. Let the fools who’ve been voting for these people for the past 40 years see what damage they’ve wrought on this country by voting against their class interests and against our very constitutional way of government.

The Second Bank of the United States was authorized for a twenty year period during James Madison’s tenure in 1816. As President, Jackson worked to rescind the bank’s federal charter. In Jackson’s veto message, the bank needed to be abolished because:

It concentrated the nation’s financial strength in a single institution.
It served mainly to make the rich richer.
It exercised too much control over members of Congress.

Of course, Old Hickory never went to Harvard or Yale.

Money is worth what we agree it is worth.

So we do create our own reality! ;)

Yay!! Central FL gets it right for a change. Rick Keller, good-bye and good riddance.

Same for gold. It is only worth what anyone is willing to pay for it. Everything is. You want something…the person holding what you want will have a “price”…it could be to do something for the person..or exchange something the person wants. When the “person” doesn’t want anything you have to offer…well…you are up shizzola’s creek. Now, when people want to buy a house or a car..and offer to pay a mortgage or a loan and can afford it…those with the power to grant it, just don’t want the deal and don’t care to make the interest. Why? They loan money to make interest. Right now, they won’t loan, because getting interest from loans takes too long (and they need money quick)…so they are doing something else with the money they don’t really have… What are they doing with the money? Tons of wealthy investors have lost tons of money…I think they are giving the money to those that have lost their money in the crash…but they sure aren’t operating they way they were before. They aren’t willing to wait 30 years to make their money back via interest. Maybe there is no money anymore, and we’ll be the last to know. Back to bartering.

We do creat reality. That is what caused the real estate bubble. People were willing to pay x for a house – appraisers confirmed that people were willing to pay x and the money went out. Then when people were willing to pay x + y appraisers confirmed and ……….
144 hrs & 39 min

If “money is worth what we agree it is worth”, then we may also ‘agree’ as to what form of economic ’system’ best serves the needs of society, individuals, and the environment.

As WarOnWarOff suggests, either people make of their own times what they will … or somebody else will do so.

The situation is not ‘helped’ by claiming that God’s unseen ‘hand’ is involved, nor that wealth goes to the ‘deserving’ …

Of course, during the Panic of 1819 the Second Bank US did the honorable thing for the country:

“The Bank as the largest creditor [to the state banks], had two alternatives: it could write-off its debts which of course would wipe out the stockholders’ equity and result in bankruptcy, or it could force the state banks to meet their obligations which would mean wholesale bankruptcy among state banks. There was no doubt about the choice…The pressure placed up[on state banks deflated the economy drastically, and as the money supply wilted, the country sank into severe depressiopn.” Herman Kroos, Documentary History of Banking and Currency.

Of course, the bank was saved and the people were ruined.

Exactly so.

Some things never change.

I think I said that — whatever the spot price of gold is. Gold has no inherent value, it just happens to be rare and somewhat useful. Generally not as useful as silver (it’s not nearly as versatile chemically), but still useful. And it’s pretty.

But you can’t eat it. It won’t keep you warm at night, nor the rain off your head. It might get you laid, but no guarantees there, either. So on the bottom level of Maslow’s hierarchy, gold doesn’t do the job. You have to exchange it for food, shelter, etc.

No doubt about it.

My point is that money is a medium of exchange, and consequently its value is a social construct. But this is true whether we are talking about gold coins, dentalia shells (wampum strings), or nicely engraved pieces of paper from the Treasury Department.

The system we’re going to use to govern money is a whole ‘nother question entirely.

But the crucial ‘question’, as regards economic ’systems’ is this: Are we prepared to kill people in the ‘process’ and go to war over perceived ‘threats’ to ‘our’, ahem(!), economic ‘interests’?

The second question is this: Are we prepared to destroy the capacity of the planet to support human life simply that a pitiful few may live like kings?

Perplexing, but, about now, people need to seriously consider new ways of thinking about old problems.

;~D

Exactly. I have some Texas weather rocks to exchange…they are limestone and they have holes in them and you can hang them from trees…you know it is raining if they’re wet and you know it’s clear if they’re dry and you know it’s windy and from where depending on which way they swing in the wind. Should be worth somethin’. Heh…

I thought that about the round to-its; people are always saying, “Well, I’ll do that when I get around to it.”

But, ya know what?

Didn’t seem to be any interest, even as conversation starters …

Didn’t sell a one.

But, I do like your idea.

Would limestone rocks from Pennsylvania work just as well?

Of does it depend upon how much rope ya give ‘em?

Sure they’d work. They’d be PA weather rocks. Pet rock worked…Heh.

If they don’t you can apply for a bail-out from the Treasury!

LS, you is one sharp wit.

If we was ‘banks’, then we’d be golden …

The Fed is the great unreported story in the financial meltdown. The amounts of money it has pumped into financial markets dwarfs anything Paulson has done at Treasury but in the case of both there has been extreme and unnecessary secrecy surrounding who gets how much and who precisely was chosen to administer giving it to them. It is important to remember that these are the same goofs who created the meltdown who are now hiding how they are dealing with it.

During one of his visits here at FDL, Grayson said he literally was “thrown under a bus” as kid in a fight and survived, obviously. He’s from the Bronx if I remember correctly. Yes, he is fantastic.

Know that BigMedia will be setting their sights on him to get him out of there. We need to rally around him now to make sure he’s in the House as long as he wants to be, and hopefully he’ll want to go higher. I joked with him while he was here when he was going to set up his Presidential exploratory committee. Watching this clip, I might try to set up a “Draft Grayson for President” site.

Remember back in 2002, during the good ole days of the Bush Admin? When Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, and WorldCom refused to tell their investors where they were spending money? We had a financial crises. The market did not respond kindly.

So now, the same guys who looked the other way are saying “You Can’t Handle the TRUTH!”

Un-ffffing-beleivable!!!

wow … that IS a better Democrat!

THANK YOU HOWIE for vetting candidates and helping us find fine reps like ALAN.