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The Federal Reserve gives us the freedom to buy things now, that we would otherwise have to wait for.

In looking at the Federal Reserve, it is important to note that this is a money system, not just a group of men sitting in a conference room controlling everything having to do with the US dollar. The Fed is a system just like the government of the US is a system. What that means is that no one controls it, and that it is much bigger than any one person or group of people could ever control. They can guide it, influence it, even do immense damage with it, but it is just too large a system with too many variables, too much lag time required to implement changes, and too many unknowable factors to control.

In some ways, this should actually be reassuring. Despite all the talk we sometimes hear about cabals of Bilderbergers or Illuminati who want to establish a New World Order by controlling our money, this is probably about as likely as Superman suddenly deciding to go on a crime spree!

But, it does mean that the system works slowly and imprecisely. A point that I have made previously is that trying to influence the behavior of people and businesses in the economy by increasing and decreasing the amount of money in circulation is like trying to influence behavior by changing the thermostat. You can turn up the temperature or turn down the temperature, but it just won't have a uniform effect on everyone. Some people like it hot, while others like it cooler; and many will even try to anticipate it or offset its influence. But it does have certain predictable results.

When the economy is sluggish or struggling, the Fed can often help conditions by giving it a boost. They can lower interest rates to make it easier for people and businesses to borrow money. They can lower reserve requirements so that banks have more liquidity available with which to make loans. And, they can put more money into circulation to make it easier for everyone to get some.

Many people, however, misunderstand this system, and even see the creation of more debt as something bad. They see debt like getting cancer or eating something that isn't good for you, when debt is really just spending money you will receive in the future right now and paying it back over some agreed upon period of time. This allows us to have things now that we otherwise would have to wait for or might not even be able to have at all if we couldn't save up the money to buy them.

Not only that, but it allows those

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