US Congressman Thomas Massie has reintroduced laws geared toward abolishing the Federal Reserve, a transfer he says was impressed by a seminal e-book on Bitcoin.
The invoice, often called 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 the moment within the preliminary phases of assessment 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 pondering.
He stated:
“The variety of co-sponsors for the invoice to finish the Federal Reserve in 10 years has gone up 10x, which is outstanding.”
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.
In response to Massie, the “first 80% of the e-book” 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 possibly can clarify what Bitcoin is as a result of you possibly can’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, notably its shortage enforced by a most provide of 21 million cash.
Ammous attributes numerous social and financial points, corresponding to lowered family financial savings and inflated asset costs, to the US abandoning the gold normal in 1971 — which many contemplate 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.
In response to 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, notably throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to extreme inflation and financial instability.
He stated throughout 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 brought about 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 performed by Massie, by which 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 development of criticism in opposition to 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 comparable 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 anticipated to face substantial opposition in Congress, the place the Fed is seen by many as a essential establishment for managing the nation’s economic system.
