Is Fed monetary policy out-of-control?

”Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is certainly doing all he can to facilitate deficit spending. The Federal Reserve’s desire to monetize the federal debt is a main reason for the aggressive program of buying federal debt via the continuous quantitative easing.  Under Chairman Bernanke, the Federal Reserve is pumping as much as $85 billion a month into the American economy.  This out-of-control monetary policy is largely conducted behind closed doors, yet it has much more effect on the do day-to-day lives of Americans than Congress’s phony budget debates.  The Federal Reserve’s polices erode the value of the dollar, causing prices to rise, which in turn diminishes people’s standard of living.  This inflation tax may be the most hideous tax of all because it is both hidden and regressive.

Of course, the Federal Reserve can only keep this up for so long before doing serious damage to the economy.  The Austrian school of economics teaches that the Federal Reserve is responsible for the boom-and-bust cycles that plague modern economies.  The Federal Reserve’s aggressive money pumping runs the risk of creating hyperinflation — especially once banks stop hoarding their reserves and began flooding the economy with Fed-created fiat currency.

Even though the economic crisis of 2008 proved the Austrians correct, there are still too many in D.C. and on Wall Street who believe the Keynesian fallacy that government and the Federal Reserve can spend-and-inflate our way to prosperity.  But, as is the case with the narcotics addict, the longer the Federal Reserve enables Congress’s habit of deficit spending, the more painful will be the withdrawal when Congress is finally forced to kick the habit.

The role of the Federal Reserve in facilitating deficit spending by the US — and even foreign governments — means it is a mistake to segregate monetary and fiscal policy.  Our nation will never get its fiscal house in order until we reform monetary policy.  The first step is letting the American people know the real facts about the Federal Reserve’s actions.”