The collapse of the American Dream explained

I found this on youtube and thought I’d share:

Basically, it is a cartoon that expalins how the fractional reserve system works in this country. After watching, it seems obvious how you can benefit from this information.

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I only watched a few minutes of a video, but it looks like a diatribe against fractional reserve banking. The “victim” should accept responsibility for not keeping up with payments.

Stupidity should have consequences. Why did he take on the mortgage if he could not keep up the payments?

On a related topic see this article:

Roughly one-third of employers, or 30%, said they would not rehire a worker who left during the “great resignation.”

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Definitely a diatribe. It barely even touches on the fractional reserve system, literally taking a few seconds to mention it in a few images. It seems that one of the main points is that the Fed is a private bank that charges our government interest and we pay for that with taxes, which is utter bullshit.

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Why do you think the Federal Reserve is publicly owned? It is owned by private shareholders.

You’ve been watching too many conspiracy videos. It’s not a corporation and it isn’t “owned” – it’s a government agency. All profits (from market operations, bailouts, etc) are transferred to the U.S.Treasury.

Yeah, get off of the liberal trope-bait sites. :laughing:

Well, it is owned, just not privately. Unless you’re a Communist/progressive - then no one owns anything … except the ruling class, who own everything, but are at fault for nothing. :slight_smile:

It is “independent”. Or at least it’s suppose to be.

The Federal Reserve Banks are private corporations owned by the member banks. But they are essentially non-profits (with the US Treasury as the beneficiary), more like a banking trade organization than a business. And they are subject to oversight from the Board of Governors, which is the only government involvement. Really, it isnt all that different than how the IRS and various state government mechanisms (government agencies) oversee/regulate charities (not government agencies). And nobody tries to claim The United Way is a government agency.

So It isnt a conspiracy theory as you claim, the Federal Reserve is not a government agency. The Board of Governors is, and they supervise a dozen privately owned banks, which in turn are owned by hundreds of member banks, most of which you or I could have a private ownership stake in.

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Imagine that! Having a job with a paycheck was actually better than not having one!

There is a swath of younger people indoctrinated into believing money should be given to them by the evil rich, banks, oil corporations, yada, yada, yada. Bernie et. al. convinced them that if only we instituted fair taxes, then these folks would live a good life while being jobless forever and ever.

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Can you explain how the dozen federal reserve banks are privately owned by the hundreds of member banks? Do they own “stock” and get a share of the profits? Because that is the implication in the video, which states that the Fed is a private bank that charges our government interest and we pay for that in taxes. I think it implies that the private owners of the federal reserve get paid interest by the government, which in turn gets it from our taxes.

It’s similar to how every credit union is owned by it’s members. I dont know the technical organization structure (corp, partnership, etc), but for all practical purposes yes, each member bank buys into the Fed bank as a condition of membership. Except that it’s [again, not sure of the specific technicalities] quasi-nonprofit - the profits are transferred/‘donated’ to the Federal government instead of distributed to shareholders.

I dont think the Federal Reserve charges the government interest, so much as it simply buys Treasuries and thus they collect the attached interest payments that are made by the government.

The Fed is currently going into the red, due to rising rates increasing the interest being paid for the deposits of member banks, while holding tons (trillions) of Treasuries with very low fixed coupon rates.

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My understanding is that the “buy-in” is like a reserve deposit requirement, and the FED pays interest on that deposit. But those deposits come from everyone’s bank deposits, so everyone gets paid some interest. Anyone with a savings account gets paid. The deposits also gives the member banks proportional (to deposits) voting rights for electing officials of the regional bank. It’s not like an evil private corporation where only the owner gets paid. That’s what the video insinuates.

And since the system is not-for-profit, most of it is paid back to the Treasury, right?

As I said, similar [in concept] to any credit union.

No, it funds the interest paid on the member banks’ deposits. Which right now is becoming a net loss, since a lot of the treasuries it holds are earning very low rates while the interest being paid out on deposits has increased. But after that, and other expenses, yes any bottom line profits go to the Treasury - thus my reference to it being a quasi-nonprofit, with any gains benefitting a designated beneficiary/cause.

I think you are drawing a distinction where there is none. These deposits are no different than shares, they reflect ownership. Thus, it’s still the owner getting paid. Only it’s at a preset rate rather than based on profits, and most of the remaining profit gets donated.

I’d mostly only object to the general “evil” characterization, the rest is more or less close enough.

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Do you mean close enough to being a private corporation?

Not only are all profits paid to the Treasury, but also the interest paid to the member banks on their deposits is minuscule compared to the entire budget of the Fed (at least it had been when rates were low, I don’t know what it is now). These are huge distinctions from “a private bank” that don’t make it into the conspiracy videos.

No, it is a private “corporation” (whatever the technical entity type). Drop the “evil” connotations, and the description is what’s close enough.

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For the gullible, it’s not enough to just drop the “evil” without an explanation. I’m not sure it is sufficient to state that all profits are returned back to the Treasury, because non-profits can still be evil.

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Lots of arguing and complaining going on here. Why not focus on what we can control? How do we profit and make money?

Personally, I take out as much debt as possible(when the interest rate is under 5% or so) and get rid of my US dollars immediately to invest them in real assets like businesses, real estate, etc.

This way I profit because my debt gets wiped out by inflation and my assets appreciate and generate larger cash flows. I profit from the inflation while the people that support this system get stuck holding the bag.

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