A Century of Money Mischief

John ButlerA CENTURY OF MONEY MISCHIEF

By John Butler

On precisely the same weekend in November as the Republican victory parties in and around Washington, the Fed celebrated its centennial far away from its DC home at Jekyll Island, Georgia. One-hundred years ago, seven US Congressmen and bankers gathered together in secret at this highly remote location to lay the political foundations for what would become, in 1913, the Federal Reserve Act.[2] The ostensible purpose of creating the Federal Reserve was to provide for greater financial stability in the wake of the US banking panic of 1907. So how has the Fed fared in this role?

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Real Life, the Future, and the Practice of Being Human

AMERICA THE HYSTERICAL

by David Harris

I stumbled into the phalanx of news and talk show channels among the upper numbers on my cable box the other night.  Normally this is territory I stay away from—too loud and too caffeinated—but it was late, the ball game was just over, and I was channel surfing without paying much attention to where I was going.  Then suddenly I felt like the proverbial 1980 tourist who took the wrong freeway exit and ended up the south Bronx in the middle of the night.  It’s scary up in the high cable digits: [Read more…]

The Van Riper Company

The Van Riper Company