When the Great Depression hit in the 1930’s, it decimated the United States. Most Americans blamed it on Wall Street’s recklessness and manipulation.
This was supposedly fixed by adding a rotating five of twelve members of the Federal Reserve as voting members of the Fed Board of Governors, which have the authority to set the interest rates of the United States, something that has a direct effect on the economy.
The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meets four times a year and decides whether to raise, lower, or keep interest rates the same. With people with this much power, you’d think we’d want to keep Wall Street out right? After all, they are most directly affected by interest rate changes, and therefore we’d assume they’d vote for their own interests, not for what’s best for the economy as a whole.
Wall Street Appointments
But that’s not what happens. The Fed has consistently appointed members that come from the famous, some same infamous, Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs is a large investment banking/investing firm whose interests are directly affected by interest rate changes.
The interest rates they can change literally affect their business directly. And yet we trust them as part of the voting committee at the Fed?
By now, four of the twelve Federal Reserve bank leaders who directly decide on the United States’ interest rates used to work at, or have direct ties to Goldman Sachs.
We know that there’s corruption because of this. Not too long ago Goldman Sachs had to pay a $50 million dollar fine after obtaining government documents from former colleagues that worked… you guessed it, at the Fed.
What kind of craziness is this? One-third of the people deciding our interest rates, which directly affect our economy, are from Wall Street.
Do you invest millions of dollars a day? Neither do I. People from Wall Street have far different agendas and desires for the economy than the average American.
I guess next time something comes up about the relationship between the Fed and Goldman Sachs they’ll just pay up… after all, what’s $50 million between friends?
To read more about this collusion, read The Nation article.
Christian DeHaemer
Check us out on YouTube!Christian is the founder of Bull and Bust Report and an editor at Energy and Capital. For more on Christian, see his editor’s page.
