Greider is a hero in the best traditions of journalism, which have been so often ignored by the archaic, obese media today. His book on globalization "One World, Ready or Not" is outstanding, as is his "Secrets of the Temple" cited above. His best is probably "Who Will Tell the People" which did a fantastic job showing how both major parties had become little more than punch-and-judy counterparts, puppets designed to keep the attention of the populace off the people doing the real governing.

It was very revealing when Henry Paulson asked for complete power over the TARP money with no oversight by any court.
How does a United States citizen even consider the notion that such dictatorial powers would be warranted or a good idea?
It's against everything we have stood for - everything that has made this country great before these people came along and screwed up the economy.

The answer has to be that people like Henry Paulson see themselves as a different class of Americans - a ruling class not to be challenged or even questioned. For Henry Paulson to suggest unlimited power with TARP was an admission that he doesn't believe in our form of government.

The Federal Reserve is clearly outside our original system of government as well, which is why they cop an attitude when we even ponder what they have done with our money. It's part of that same ruling class mentality that Henry Paulson used to become so rich. America has been hijacked and it was not by terrorists from abroad - it was by bankers. They are now frantically trying to keep the public from figuring it out, even as they lobby to continue to do exactly as before, only with more power given to the Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile our city council looked at this Paulson guy and decided he was exactly whom we should go into business with, which is why our city council has sold out Portland as much as the Paulsons have sold out America.

Here's to democracy. May we get the government we deserve. --Rick Mercer

As long as more people know who won Idol vs. who the President is, I would say we have exactly the government we deserve. The only questions is how bad will it get before the masses care.

If you want to understand the difficulty of getting a full investigation of the Fed, then you need to look back at how easily the Fed got the TARP money from Congress.

Few were the people who even wanted to question the Fed. That same attitude must be overcome if we are ever going to have a chance to exercise any supervision over the Fed.

It's funny that the primary bipartisan action in Congress seems to be in the effort to bring transparency to the operations of the Federal Reserve System. Too bad the Obama administration opposes this effort, thus trashing two campaign promises at once: transparency and bipartisanship.

BTW, a financial blogger has decided to call the president Barack W. Obama, since so many Bush policies have been continued this year.

Most western democracies have had central banks since the 1920s when the world moved away from the gold standard.

That said, its obvious that the Fed hasn't done the greatest job with the economy. For example there have been numerous recessions in my lifetime, and the value of the US dollar is really the pits compared to what it was even 50 years ago.

For whats its worth, recognizing that the the fed is an imperfect institution, it makes sense to have some checks and balances built into the system. This has worked pretty well since the nation got started, there is no reason to change now.

Best,

James

Unknown to most people, the FED is not a government agency, but a cartel of the biggest banks. The FED was given the power over our money in 1913 in a behind the scenes deal that Pres. Wilson shortly afterward believed he did the wrong thing by signing the bill. Their motive for setting interest rates or money growth may or may not coincide with the interests of the American citizens.

I am proud of you Jack for carrying this video.

Obama turns out to be just another good ole boy! (no pun intended)

The banks and bankers are the scourge of humanity, what they do controls all of our fates.