Empire Salon | Alex Pollock & Howard Adler

Hosted by Committee for the Republic. Full video here.

The Committee for the Republic seeks to restore Congress as the exclusive custodian of the war power under the U.S. Constitution. Since the Korean War, American foreign policy has operated extra-constitutionally featuring presidential usurpation and congressional abdication. The price has been staggering—not only in the squandering of trillions of dollars and lives lost but in the annihilation of liberty and the rule law. Committee salons also explore the funding necessary to finance the wars that earmark an imperial presidency. The Federal Reserve is the rich uncle of war finance.

Central banking is a cornerstone of government power under any monetary standard. But it is a lead actor in our pure fiat currency system. The first step was taken in 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt by executive order prohibited Americans from owning gold. The culminating step was taken in 1971 by President Nixon's severing of the last tie of the dollar to gold -- putting the world on an "elastic" paper money standard.

Alex Pollock and Howard Adler will address their new book, Surprised Again!--The Covid Crisis and the New Market Bubble. It dissects the 2020 financial panic, the massive government interventions to finance it, and the ensuing Everything Bubble and high inflation. With fiat currency in unlimited supply, the Fed was essential to financing these expansions of government. Its balance sheet ballooned by over $4 trillion in printing the dollars needed to "lend freely" into the financial crisis and to cover the staggering government deficits which ensued. The Fed performed the real first mission of every central bank: financing the government of which it is a part.

The salon will also explore the wider implications of the role of the Fed as paymaster of the American empire and enabler of our multi-trillion-dollar military-industrial-security complex. Since the Bank of England was formed in 1694 to finance King William's wars, the link of central banking to war finance has continued. The Constitution entrusts to Congress financing government operations, but Congress has surrendered responsibility to the executive branch and the central bank. The dollar as a reserve currency enables the Fed to fund the empire with foreign dollar holdings.

Opening remarks:

Have we lost an independent central bank?

In post-WW1 Germany, who caused inflation?

Explain if we are really surprised by massive financial events or not.

What are the implications long-term of manipulating interest rates?

How expensive would wars be if we weren't the reserve currency?

Broad question about the role of the Fed.

Question about the broad role of the Fed and its political involvement as well as the value of currency boards.