response 134 of 536:

Oct 2 20:43 UTC 2003

Re #131:
    We *do* have inflation, and precious little growth at the moment. Prices
overall still go up on quite a few things. The proof is as close as your
nearest supermarket, gas station, and real estate broker.

response 136 of 536:

Oct 2 23:24 UTC 2003

slynne is in a wheelchair?

response 138 of 536:

Oct 3 05:18 UTC 2003

until recently it was the inflation of goods ans services that occurred
when teh money supply outpaced teh growth of gdp. now (!!) there is
an inflation of   asset values   sted goods and services.  
  
more correctly put, wehn the fed injected massive quantities of dollars
into the banking system (that *is* wehre it goes, btw) teh economy
ddi strt to turn around, slowly. why slowly withsuch an infusion?
  
welllll, it seems that 'all that extra cash bought securities
instead of goods ans services. [so,] instead of *consumer price*
inflation (emp added) teh united states got an *asset price* inflation" more
commonly called a stock market boom.
  
'thre reamins a mystery to haunt the dreams fo central bankers,
because nobody know why monetary stimulus becomes *consumer price*
inflation in one country and *asset price* inflatoin in another.'
  
  



of course the trasury has been printing more and more little green pieces
of paper (now to be peach or some other vomit-color [another argument])
but that has *nothing* to do with monetary policy except to *reflect*
teh hand-to-hand liquidity we need.
  



and also, please recognize, that federal reserve notes are a 
CLAIM ON A BANK, not a claim on the government. teh gummint is insulated!
  
silver certificates (with the blue seal) are a claim on the government.
  
and to mask some of teh illiquidity that exists every night, even teh
federal reserve notes are un-traceable now! bills used to have teh 
bank-of-issue on teh obverse side, to the left of  the portrait.
  
teh singles in-hadn now still do (series 2001) fed reserve of philidepphia
adn fed reserve of san francisco (to identify two) 
  
however teh 5s and 10s ans 20s now *simply state* 'united states
federal reserve SYSTEM' so you don't know where teh hell teh damn thing
came from (also series 2001)!

response 144 of 536:

Oct 3 21:55 UTC 2003

Re #137:
    What I want is to know that a given quantity of dollars will always buy
at least the same quantity of food, gasoline, housing, or anything else I
might want any number of years from now as it does today. What I *really want
is for the price of everything else in the economy to do what the price of
computers and other electronics has been doing over the past couple of
decades, and to the same degree.

    And it would be nice if interest rates were significantly greater than
inflation.

response 146 of 536:

Oct 4 03:27 UTC 2003

There is no functional difference between a federal reserve note drawn
upon San Francisco or Kansas City.  They are worth exactly the same
amount, circulate in exactly the same way, and probably roll off the
same printing presses after being printed on the same paper with the
same ink.  At best all that it is is an inventory/production tag;
important to the people who bail the stuff up and send it out to the
first bank, but completely irrelevant to how money functions in the
economy.  This is, of course, even supposing that actual paper cash is
really all that important to the economy in the first place - which is
surely getting less and less true.  When you pay for something using a
credit card funded via an electronic fund transfer from an account that
gets filled up with "money" you earned and arranged to have direct
deposited; does it matter what's printed on the green stuff some people
still use for incidental expenses?

Besides "federal reserve notes" and "silver certificates", I ran across
mention of "united states notes".  These seem to have been in
circulation from 1862 through 1923, and may have been briefly issued
during the Kennedy administration too.  There were also "Gold
certificates", which came in a large size and a small size.  Some of the
issues of gold certificates reached general circulation, others were
only circulated between banks.  For while, it was actually illegal to
own a gold certificate.

response 148 of 536:

Oct 4 13:26 UTC 2003

Re #143:  You're wrong, Rane.  The non-locality principle cannot
be used to transmit information.

response 150 of 536:

Oct 4 16:04 UTC 2003

Learn to write, jp2.

response 154 of 536:

Oct 5 01:39 UTC 2003

152: you act as though hanging out with other could possibly be a bad thing...

response 156 of 536:

Oct 5 15:23 UTC 2003

(Seems to me that the Federal Reserve Banks are private in the same sense that
United States Postal Service is private.)

response 158 of 536:

Oct 5 20:28 UTC 2003

This is from the NY Fed's web site. I am sure that jp2 will continue to 
spout his bs but I imagine that most folks will trust The Fed itself 
over jp2. Jamie, I hope you will consider reading the entire FAQ before 
you make more of a fool of yourself...

http://www.ny.frb.org/aboutthefed/faq.html#link24

Are the Federal Reserve Banks private companies? 
Federal Reserve Banks, created by an act of Congress in 1913, are 
operated in the public interest rather than for profit or to benefit 
any private group. Member banks hold stock in their regional Reserve 
Banks, but do not exercise control over the Reserve Bank or the Federal 
Reserve System. Holding this stock does not carry with it the kind of 
control and financial interest that holding publicly traded stock 
allows. Fed stock cannot be sold or traded. The member banks receive a 
fixed 6 percent dividend annually on their stock and elect six of the 
nine members of the Reserve Bank's board of directors. 

So, who owns the Fed? Although it is set up like a private corporation 
and member banks hold its stock, the Fed owes its existence to an act 
of Congress and has a mandate to serve the public. Therefore, the most 
accurate answer may be that the Fed is "owned" by the citizens of the 
United States.