The Federal Reserve: Interest Rate Manipulator, Bubble Blower, Recovery Impeder, Just Doin' Its Job!
James Dorn of the Cato Institute has a good summation of everything the American economy has been getting from its central bank, the Federal Reserve, lately.
It has, as Dorn explains, succeeded in facilitating booming federal debt; likely blowing a bond bubble in its feckelss attempt to facilitate growth through eternally small interest rates; continuing to make saving a bum deal for most of us; encouraging banks to just hoard money rather than lend it through paying interest on reserves; and in general screwing with the national and world economy with its hubristic attempt to manage us to smooth growth and high employment.
Dorn's recommendation:
Getting rid of the Fed's dual mandate, eliminating interest on excess reserves, moving away from interest-rate targeting and toward directly controlling the monetary base, and focusing on long-run price stability would be a start. Getting rid of monopolistic central banks and moving toward a rules-based system of competitive "free banking" would offer an alternative that is consistent with a liberal economic order.
Tim Cavanaugh has written many biting and interesting bits about the Fed for us here at Reason.
My 2009 Reason feature on the movement to curb, audit, or end the Federal Reserve.