Going for the Heart (Lew Rockwell)

Lew Rockwell on the unquestioned "necessity" of central banks:

The heart of the modern state is the central bank. By heart I mean the very thing that makes it work, and without which the modern state would quickly wither and die. It is the thing that makes the money. As such, it purports to be our stabilizer, our source of employment, the fuel behind the economic growth that brings us technology.

In truth, it does none of these things. What it does do effectively is prop up the leviathan state and all its pomps. You would never know this from the textbook, of course. The subject is rarely mentioned in political science. Historians treat the establishment of the Fed as an event far less important than the creation of the Department of Labor.

It is interesting how rarely its existence is ever questioned, much less condemned. Instead, the head of the central bank is fawned over and courted by all sides of the political spectrum. He enjoys a level of immunity from criticism that no one else in politics has. Again, this is proof of the extent to which we do not believe in authentic freedom, since it is the central bank that is the true source of the decline of our freedom.

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