Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Crash that comes

America is frequently referred to as the “richest nation on earth”, but the reality is that most American people are just living on borrowed money, and for many the transformation from “seeming rich” to “poor” could happen overnight.

In fact, there is not one sector in the U.S. that has shown any measure of refrain. Government, corporate, and consumer debt are all at record levels.

Private debt is now much higher than during the Great Depression, and has been allowed to grow as if there were no consequences to borrowing, and no limit to what can be paid back in the future. The U.S. is more leveraged by private debt than ever before, and families have the lowest rate of saving since 1929, the beginning of the Great Depression.

The Federal Reserve has bailed out the U.S. economy a couple times in recent months, to the tune of billions of dollars. This has involved the Fed pumping liquidity into the system to thwart greater economic chaos, and also cutting the interest rate on the money it lends directly to banks.

What most American citizens don't realize is that the Federal Reserve, which controls the U.S. currency, inflation, and deflation at the cost of the American people, is a private corporation.

While the name “Federal Reserve” might suggest otherwise, it is simply a private company set up by big bankers in 1913, a company that makes decisions based on profits, as required by stockholders. The Federal Reserve System controls the U.S. currency, inflation, and deflation at the price of the American people.

The fact that Americans hold a great deal of private debt isn't troublesome to them, merely profitable.

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