Is the Federal Reserve Destroying the Dollar?

Let's compare the  US economy before the formation of The Fed  to the US economy since the Federal Reserve took control and put it to a vote

There are 3 basic states of economic decline; Recessions, Panics and Depressions. A recession is a major stalling of the economy. Recessions come and go, they are like economic road debris or pot holes. No matter how hard you try to eliminate them, they will appear in the road from time to time and make the ride bumpy. A Depression is basically a Recession on steroids, think economic sink holes, blizzards, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and tornadoes. Most people however, are not familiar with Panics. Panics are just a specific type of Depression. If you ask me, the term Panic only exist to give economics professors another thing to lecture about. To the common man, Depressions and Panics are one in the same.

I am here to discuss the idea that the Federal Reserve is what ails our economy. That it is some out of control evil banking institution doing the bidding of the ultra elite and Illuminati, irreparably damaging our economy. I plan to challenge the notion that we were better off before The Fed and that we would be better off without it. For the record, I don’t like everything The Fed does, nor do I think everything The Fed does is the right… And yes, there is a difference… Eating beef liver might be the right thing but I sure don’t have to like it. I propose to dispel the myth that The Fed is the root of all economic evil and spell it out with detailed facts and not the fear mongering tactics of my ideological opponents.

Let’s start with a little history. Before the Fed was formed, Congress did the job the Fed currently does. I will compare the job that The Federal Reserve has done for the past 99 years to the job that Congress did over the 113 years prior and let you be the judge. I promise to keep it so simple that even a ten year old can understand it.

Our nation was formed at the tail end of the 1700s so there was not enough time to accurately judge Congress' performance. I vote to scratch it from the scorecard and start fresh in the next century. Just for the record though, there was 1 Panic that lasted 3 years.

The 1800s offered Congress a full 100 years to test their skills at running the show. They produced 16 Recessions, 5 Panics and 3 Depressions. 21 out of 100 years were either a Depression or Panic years. That’s almost a quarter century in Depression. Add 29 more years of Recession and Congress gave us half the century in the crapper.

The 1900s and the 2Ks… The Federal Reserve was formed in 1913, but I'll still give them responsibility for the entire century. I think this is particularly fair since they have the 1st 12 years of the current century giving The Fed just shy of a full century to compare. The 1900s to 2012 gave us 2 depression and 2 Panics totaling 12 years.  About half the Depression years of the previous century, but keep in mind that the 2 Panics and 5 of those 12 Depression years occurred pre Fed. In the past 99 years, since the forming of the Fed, we have only had 7 years of Depression derived from only 2 Depressions. The US has actually been Depression free for 79 consecutive years, longer than any other period in our history. The Fed is responsible for only 21 years of Recession (2 of them being pre Fed). In the 99 years of Fed control we have had 28 bad economic years (Recessions, Depressions and Panics).

Let's sum it all up…

Congress: 7 Panics, 3 Depressions and a total of 55 crappy economic years out of 113

Vs

The Fed: 0 Panics, 2 Depressions and a total of 26 Crappy economic years out of 99

Seems pretty cut and dry to me.

Cybergodd