I am looking for an Econ Ph.D. to assist me with a law review article I am writing regarding the Federal Reserve. Specifically, I need someone who is well versed in citable resources regarding the creation of money. I don't anticipate you would need to write anything unless you wanted to or if you are interested in co-authoring the article. At this point I view your participation as providing the proper resources to which I can cite for my background on the Federal Reserve's ability to create money. I can give you more details if you're interested. As far as I can tell the issue on which I will write is of first impression in the legal community.
I have a lot of good bits on the Federal Reserve on my blog. My posts on monetizing the debt and the Compound Interest Paradox are interesting, and all the details are verifiable from mainstream sources, although you'll have to do a lot of reading.
The legal argument against the Federal Reserve is that the US Constitution delegates money-creation power to Congress. Congress does not have the right to delegate its money creation power to the Federal Reserve, which is a private corporation. Of course, the Supreme Court has ruled otherwise, so from a legal perspective that argument is invalid. (It depends on what you consider to be more important, the language in the Constitution or what the Supreme Court incorrectly said.)
You can't understand the Federal Reserve without also understanding the income tax and IRS. There's a lot of interesting bits on that. One guy did some research and concluded the 16th amendment was never properly ratified. Some people say Congress never explicitly authorized the IRS. Some people say that, in 1913, the definition of income did not include wages. "Wages are income" was retconned after the 16th amendment was ratified. In 1913, "income" meant what we now consider to be "passive income".
The US dollar is unbacked by anything but the taxation power of the IRS. People can't boycott the Federal Reserve, because the IRS demands that people give it Federal Reserve Notes in exchange for permission to work. Some people say "all work is subject to taxation" is a complete perversion of the US Constitution.
Do Congress and the IRS have the right to retroactively change the definition of income, after the 16th amendment was ratified?
There's also an interesting legal theory that a debt contract with a bank is really a no-interest contract. In order for a contract to be binding, both sides must contribute something of tangible economic value. When you borrow from a bank via a mortgage, the bank literally prints new money and loans it to you. The bank either loans money already on deposit or borrows from the Federal Reserve at the Fed Funds Rate. A bank performs no actual work when it loans you money. According to common law, a debt contract with a bank is an invalid contract. Of course, a lawyer is barred from making a common law defense in court.
Another interesting legal theory regarding the Federal Reserve and income tax is the strawman corporation. If you look at your driver's license, bank statement, or any other government document, your name is written in ALL CAPS. There is a corporation with the same name as you that technically owns all your property. Your wages are really a corporate profit for your strawman corporation, and therefore subject to the income tax.
I have my own blog at FSK's Guide to Reality. Let me know if you like it.
fsk:...all the details are verifiable from mainstream sources, although you'll have to do a lot of reading.
I would like nothing more than to see a verification of the compound interest paradox from mainstream sources since you as of yet have been unwilling or unable to defend it on the basis that anyone who opposes it is a lapdog of the mainstream.
But you still insist on posting a link to it on your blog every time the chance presents itself as if it were an economic law or something.
Links to the mainstream will be just fine, thank you very much.
fsk: According to common law, a debt contract with a bank is an invalid contract. Of course, a lawyer is barred from making a common law defense in court.
As I was told by a lawyer friend of mine that Arizona isn't a common law state so that argument goes out the window.
fsk:Another interesting legal theory regarding the Federal Reserve and income tax is the strawman corporation. If you look at your driver's license, bank statement, or any other government document, your name is written in ALL CAPS. There is a corporation with the same name as you that technically owns all your property. Your wages are really a corporate profit for your strawman corporation, and therefore subject to the income tax.
Throw in some independent verification on that one as well while you're at it. Here's the "mainstream" view on it...
Yuck, you want to wield archaic British anti-usury laws? No thanks.
Peace
I'm not sure what sources you're looking for but the Fed creates money by buying assets, like treasury debt. It reduces money by selling assets, also usually treasury debt. The Fed has no bank account(it is money) so any money it receives disappears from circulation.
Recently it's been buying anything banks own, at face(ie false) value, in order to provide "liquidity."
The best resource are the 3 Rothbard books I keep citing here.
What has government done to our money?, America's Great Depression, and The Case Against the FED. All 3 are available in PDF format (free) from the Mises Institute, as well as print. Personally, I can't read long PDFs, I prefer printed text.
Rothbard always sourced and referenced his work, you will find an enormous amount of knowledge in the books, as well as citations you can use in your project.
liberty student:What has government done to our money?, America's Great Depression, and The Case Against the FED.
Thanks. Very helpful. I'll try to get Mises a copy of my article when I'm finished, assuming the law review will let me (copyright....).
My bad. I meant the history of money and banking, although Lew Rockwell and David Gordon promote "What has government done to our money?" on the podcast tomorrow.
Here are the first 3 books
http://mises.org/Community/forums/p/3080/42420.aspx#42420
What Has Government Done to Our Money?
PDF: http://mises.org/rothbard/rothmoney.pdf
Online: http://mises.org/money.asp
Print for Purchase: http://www.mises.org/store/What-Has-Government-Done-to-Our-MoneyCase-for-the-100-Percent-Gold-Dollar-P224C0.aspx