Reality Trumps Federal Reserve Rhetoric

An excerpt from my chapter, "The Fed: Reality Trumps Rhetoric" appears today as a daily article at Mises.org. I was honored to be asked to contribute the chapter to a new book, The Fed at One Hundred that provides a critical assessment of our nation's central money making machine. Edited by David Howden and Joseph T. Salerno, the book is an excellent work providing a scholarly evaluation of the Federal Reserve. In my chapter I explore main themes in the rhetoric used by Fed officials, drawing upon speeches from Federal Reserve Chairmen and official Fed publications since its inception. I then hold this rhetoric up to the light of the monetary and economic history of the United States and show that despite claims to be the savior of the global economy,

The history of the Fed has been one of monetary inflation, higher overall prices, diminished purchasing power, economic depressions, and lost decades. In 1913 the state sowed the inflationist wind and for a hundred years we have been reaping the economic whirlwind.