I doubt 10% of the population could explain what the Fed even does.
I doubt 10% of congress could explain what the Fed even does.
Probably right, unfortunately.
Since Libby is now finally gone I suppose I might get a real answer instead of "OMG STATIST FASCISM BLAH BLAH BLAH" if I ask how regular crashes are going to be avoided without a central bank like the Federal Reserve which is the whole reason it was created.
Did a helluva job preventing the '29 crash, so you have a good point.
In fairness, it is because of the gold standard and the Fed's insistence on a strict monetary policy in order to defend US currency that prevented recovery for quite some time. It's not fair to blame the Federal Reserve or accuse the Fed or having no positive impact on the economy, because it wasn't actually working as intended. Instead of better circulating money throughout the economy as was the point, they tightened supply when it was needed the most, and simply mimicked the behavior of the previous decades' bank runs. When the Fed
does pump money into the economy, it works much better.
