Four reasons NOT to hate the Federal Reserve system...

Now keep in mind I'm not saying that the Fed is perfect and couldn't use a review and an overhaul...it totally could. I just wanted to point out that it isn't necessary to hate it with the blind and mistrustful loathing the general public seems to have for it.

Four reasons to support the Federal Reserve System:

1) Despite people's fears and misgivings, the Federal Reserve Bank is not a completely independent entity. It is still responsible to Congress, so even though it's 'private', it's only partially private. Congress writes all its rules, so to speak, and the Senate approves all heads of the Fed.

2) Has anyone ever heard of The Panic of 1907? The very basics: the Panic was caused by a lot of brand new businesses popping up (think 'dot.com bubble' and the internet) to take advantage of the blossoming railroad industry: everyone was looking to make their dime. This put a strain on the economy and caused corrupt behavior, such as people buying shares of their own stock to boost prices. That, in turn, led to bank failures - where people pulled out more money than banks had.

3) Has anyone ever heard of The Panic of 1893? Basically, a drop in gold, which backed currency at that time, and mishandling of silver, set off an economic depression. That caused people to panic and try to withdraw more money than what the banks had on hand. Between the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, these sorts of failures have not happened again.

4) There were, quite literally, THOUSANDS of different types of currencies during the 'free banking era', which everyone here seems to want to return to. These were state run banks and free banks, and often, money that was good in one state was worthless in another.

In this day and age of frequent and far-reaching travel, would you really want your New York currency to be worthless in Florida...and on the gold standard when your bank is on the silver standard?

I repeat - this is not a praise of the Federal Reserve System. The current set-up has a lot of problems and could use a good tweaking. This entry is just meant to be food for thought on a subject that takes a lot of hard (and sometimes unnecessary) hits. Considering that the Fed doesn't even have a full 100 years under its belt yet, it's not doing as badly as it might.

As for President Wilson's mandating it into existence, I know a lot of average Joes really hate him for it, but given the circumstances in the 30 years preceding the Federal Reserve Act, I can't say that I blame him for at least giving it a try.