Last week US Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin, ordered the Federal Reserve to Return $455 billion of unspent stimulus funds given the Fed in last March’s ‘Cares Act’ passed by Congress. Today’s Alternative Visions show discusses the politics of the move within the context of the history of the relationship between the Treasury and the Fed, going back to the early attempts to create a central bank in the 1780s, 1790s, and beyond up to the creation of the Fed finally in 1913. Dr. Rasmus restates some of these major themes in his recent book, ‘Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed’ (2019) and its sequel book, ‘Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the coming Depressions’ (2017). What are the central bank ‘functions’, whether administered by a formal central bank, like the Fed, or by the Treasury? Why the Fed was created by the big private bankers. How it functions today in 21st century US global capitalism to ensure the subsidization of financial interests and corporations among the US capitalist class. Why the so-called ‘rift’ is no rift at all. And what are the politics of Mnuchin’s recall of the $455 billion given to the Fed last March and still unspent–even as unemployment remains in excess of 25m today in the US, food lines grow, rent evictions accelerate, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses are failing and closing.
To Listen to the Hour Long Alternative Visions show GO TO:
https://alternativevisions.podbean.com/e/alternative-visions-us-treasury-vs-us-federal-reserve-rift-functions-of-capitalist-central-banks/
US Treasury v. the Fed: the Mnuchin-Powell ‘Rift’-audio
November 27, 2020 by jackrasmus
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