Why The Federal Reserve No Longer Controls The Money Supply

The Federal Reserve (the Fed) takes a lot of crap for today's U.S. economy. Personally, I feel a lot of this blame is misplaced, due to a) having a convenient scapegoat to blame the financial crisis on and b) the ignorance on the part of the majority of Americans on what the Fed is actually capable of doing in response to recessions, depressions, and economic difficulties.

The Fed is essentially charged with maintaining the banking industry's stability. If a bank runs into trouble, it can contact its regional Federal Reserve bank and take out a loan to temporarily ease the crisis. This role is generally called "lender of last resort." The Fed also can manipulate inflation by manipulating interest rates on short-term (generally overnight) loans. By moving interest rates up, the Fed can effectively decrease the money supply, which then lowers inflation. By setting interest rates lower, the Fed increases the money supply, which can increase inflation.

But here's the problem. Since the 1990s, the Fed has not had control of the money supply, and therefore has little to no control over inflation. This is illustrated by the fact that the Fed has not been able to influence the economy enough to bring unemployment down during the recent crisis. Interest rates up, interest rates down, the only people who really seem to care are investors on Wall Street who are so jumpy that the hint of a rumor of a rate increase will send stocks plummeting 1000+ points.

So who controls the money supply? I suggest that it's banks and credit card companies. This is why:

Read more @ ValkyrieFalls.com - Why The Fed No Longer Controls The Money Supply

And We're Live!

Woot woot!

Valkyrie Falls.com

Oh yay! So excited.

Again, just for reminder's sake: this site will continue to be updated with new posts until the end of the year. Periodically, I'll post reminders on this site that it will eventually be left to languish in the realms of forgotten websites after the 1st, so hopefully no one suffers from VF withdrawal.

Thanks again, all!

Circumcision and the Law

Calif. Governor Jerry Brown signs law prohibiting local governments from banning circumcision.

This legislation was a reaction against the city of San Francisco which appeared to be poised to ban circumcision except when deemed medically necessary (SF Gate article with a few more details). Of course, parents with religious orders to circumcise their children were more than a little perturbed.

Source: CBSNews.com/istockphoto

Sorry, but I have to side with the religious folks on this one. Parents should have the choice; I don't think it's much similar than parents who get their daughter's ear pierced, and maybe even a bit worse, since pain-killers usually aren't given for ear piercings (the Orange Julius was nice, but not a pain-killer). Those sumbiatches hurt!

I figured my dad and my brother were circumcised, and I know my mom is intelligent enough to have looked up the information and weighed the pros and cons, so I asked her why she had my brother circumcised. She shrugged a bit nonchalantly and replied, "So he'd look like his dad."

Community.

The sense of belonging, especially about something so intrinsic to male identity as the look, shape, length, color, twist, and bend of their reproductive organ, must be a powerful motivation to cause parents to inflict that kind of harm on their children. I don't have kids personally, but it must tug at a parent's heartstrings. As barbaric as the procedure may be, parents should have the right to choose to circumcise their son if they deem it a necessary aspect of community involvement. I sincerely hope they insist on at least local anesthetics; I certainly believe the baby can feel pain at that point, and there's no reason to subject them to that.

I also believe circumcision as a baby is somewhat more humane than as an adult. Babies don't have sex lives, so the recovery is not as severe socially or physically. A study in Pakistan showed that the average recovery time for a particular method for infants was 8.7 days, but increased to 16.8 days for children over 5 years old. Circumcision itself also takes longer; from as little as 5-10 minutes in infants to as long as an hour in adults. It's also more expensive the older the patient.

With that said, I'm not circumcising any sons I have, unless medically necessary. I had a friend who had a botched circumcision, and he often confided in me that he felt inadequate and that he would never be able to orgasm "normally." He felt it was the source of several issues in his life. I don't believe circumcision is necessary, and it's not a characteristic of my "community," so the chances of complication are too great for whatever health benefits there might be, most of which don't apply in the United States.

As a female, I can tell you that as far as performance, it makes no difference. As long as the man practices good hygiene, he should have a good sex life regardless of the status of his foreskin. I believe it a basic human right to enjoy sex safely, and if parents believe that the alteration of their sons' genitals is necessary for a proper sense of community and sexuality, then I will defend their right to choose that for their children. I do not believe that the government has the right to step in on this aspect of parental and individual choice. Thank you, Governor Brown, for prohibiting the government from taking away this freedom.

DADT Repealed; We're Not Done Yet

Obama tells gay activists that he is committed to equality (CNN).

I didn't post or comment on the repeal of DADT on Tuesday this week, because while parts of the world celebrated as this U.S. soldier came out to his dad, other parts of the world mourned after a 14-year-old teen committed suicide last weekend. The teen had made a video that is part of the "It's Get Better" series, which features the message to gay teens that it will get better as they get older, so they have hope to hang in there. It didn't get better quick enough for Randy.

Or Matthew Shepard. Or Brandon Teena. It hasn't been quick enough for countless teens for whom the thought of going to school makes their insides do flip-flops and their palms sweaty and their brains empty. How can you go to school and concentrate on the material when you're looking at the clock counting down the minutes to your next beating?

We're all smart. Everyone last one of us. You can't question your sexuality for very long without getting into some serious existential philosophical arguments with yourself. For some of us, we never stop questioning. On occasion, I try to convince myself that no, I'm not really bisexual, I'm just kidding myself. And the latest cosplay thread on Fark pops up and I realize that I'm doomed to a lifetime of getting turned on by women.

It's not my choice. I can't help that I have the same sex drive as a man, including the object of that drive. And besides, who would choose this? Who would consciously choose to subject themselves to a lifetime of ridicule? How important, how monumental, how massive, must an issue be, that people are willing to sacrifice their livelihoods, their families, their friends, everything, just to be able to feel the freedom to be who they are inside? How sweet must that taste, to finally come out of that closet and breathe that air and see those lights and know that somewhere, out there, you belong.

I got really lucky. With few exceptions, my family is overwhelmingly supportive of who I am. But others aren't so lucky. We need to teach our children that it is not okay to bully someone. It is not okay for adults to bully someone either, so parents must hold themselves to a higher standard. Playground hijinks are one thing. But the constant, day-to-day terrorist threat of bullying that goes on in our schools, our media, our government, must stop. If we expect our children to do well in school, the first thing we have to do is give them safety and freedom. It gets better, but it is our responsibility to make sure that in the future, it doesn't have to.

Moving In Progress

Hey guys!

We're moving. The site was supposed to go live today, but we all know how those things go. The move is in progress, and I'll will update you all as soon as it's completed so you can update your bookmarks. I apologize for any service issues there might be in the meantime; the situation for the next little bit is going to be very fluid, so thank you for your patience.

Also, this site will be up until this end of the year. Once the link to the new site is posted, I won't keep this site updated with the newest posts, so you'll have to change your bookmarks to the new site (I know, it's a pain, but I'd rather do it now than later).

Hopefully the new site will be fully live soon!

Take care,
Becky Littlefield