US Congressman Thomas Massie has reintroduced laws aimed toward abolishing the Federal Reserve, a transfer he says was impressed by a seminal ebook on Bitcoin.
The invoice, often known as the “Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act,” marks the primary try in a decade to dismantle the nation’s central banking system. It was launched by Massie in Could and is at present within the preliminary phases of evaluate by the Home.
Massie revealed throughout a podcast look on June 13 with writer Tom Woods that the initiative has garnered important help over the previous decade, opposite to his preliminary considering.
He stated:
“The variety of co-sponsors for the invoice to finish the Federal Reserve in 10 years has gone up 10x, which is exceptional.”
The Bitcoin Customary
Massie additionally revealed that he made the choice to reintroduce the controversial invoice after listening to “The Bitcoin Customary” audiobook by Saifedean Ammous.
Based on Massie, the “first 80% of the ebook” explains the world’s financial system and the way it features. He added:
“The primary 80% of it isn’t about Bitcoin, it’s about cash, it’s about ‘what’s cash?’ He [Ammous] has to put that down earlier than you’ll be able to clarify what Bitcoin is as a result of you’ll be able to’t assume that everybody is aware of what cash was.”
“The Bitcoin Customary,” printed in 2018, argues that Bitcoin possesses superior financial properties in comparison with conventional fiat currencies, significantly its shortage enforced by a most provide of 21 million cash.
Ammous attributes varied social and financial points, equivalent to decreased family financial savings and inflated asset costs, to the US abandoning the gold commonplace in 1971 — which many think about the start of the “fiat rip-off” that enables central banks to print limitless quantities of cash.
Abolishing the Fed
Massie’s invoice echoes these themes, claiming that Federal Reserve insurance policies disproportionately profit the rich and erode retirees’ financial savings.
Based on the invoice:
“Retirees see their financial savings evaporate beneath the Fed’s insurance policies, which profit the rich and related.”
The proposed laws goals to abolish the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks, successfully repealing the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
Massie argues that the Fed’s insurance policies, significantly in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to extreme inflation and financial instability.
He stated in the course of the podcast:
“Throughout COVID, the Fed created trillions of {dollars} out of skinny air and loaned it to the Treasury Division to allow unprecedented deficit spending. By monetizing the debt, the Fed devalued the greenback and enabled free cash insurance policies that prompted the excessive inflation we see in the present day.”
Massie’s invoice has garnered help from 21 cosponsors, together with notable Republicans like Rep. Lauren Boebert, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
The invoice’s introduction follows a Twitter ballot carried out by Massie, wherein 86% of over 115,000 respondents supported the thought of abolishing the Fed — reflecting important public discontent with the central financial institution’s operations.
Massie’s transfer is a part of a broader pattern of criticism towards the Fed, which has traditionally confronted scrutiny over its affect on the economic system and its perceived lack of transparency. The invoice additionally revives efforts initially led by former Congressman Ron Paul, who first launched related laws in 1999 and reintroduced it in 2013.
Regardless of its potential to resonate with sure segments of the general public and lawmakers, the invoice is predicted to face substantial opposition in Congress, the place the Fed is seen by many as a crucial establishment for managing the nation’s economic system.
