Bizarre Shadowy Paper-Based Payment System Being Rolled Out Worldwide

Re:Bizarre Shadowy Paper-Based Payment System Being Rolled O... by icebraining on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @12:29PM (#7259492)

Looking at the actions of the Fed after the crises is only evaluating half of the situation. For example, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, hardly a libertarian group, blames the Fed and its chairmen for enabling the crisis to happen in the first place.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bizarre Shadowy Paper-Based Payment System Being Rolled O... by altcognito on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @01:34PM (#7260007)

http://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-reports/f...

"The prime example is the Federal Reserve’s pivotal failure to stem the flow of toxic mortgages, which it could have done by setting prudent mortgage-lending standards. The Federal Reserve was the one entity empowered to do so and it did not."

Ah, but the crisis would have happened in the absence of the Federal reserve. In fact, one could easily argue that the Fed was lobbied heavily, HEAVILY to do less by external forces and those forces succeeded. You cannot come to the conclusion that a lack of a Fed would have made markets more stable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bizarre Shadowy Paper-Based Payment System Being Rolled O... by reqres on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @01:53PM (#7260158)

I think the broader point is that financial bubbles will happen with or without supposed regulation. The question remains what can be done when it happens?

Without a centralised monetary authority you lose an important tool to manage a crash.

[ Parent | on HN ]