From owner-freebsd-chat  Sun May 28  5:53: 7 2000
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From: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@hub.freebsd.org>
To: jhix@mindspring.com
Cc: chat@freebsd.org
In-reply-to: <3930E994.4DDACD83@mindspring.com> (message from W Gerald Hicks
	on Sun, 28 May 2000 02:40:36 -0700)
Subject: Re: The Ethics of Free Software
Message-Id: <20000528125303.2556D37B78B@hub.freebsd.org>
Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 05:53:03 -0700 (PDT)
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> 
> I was half-joking  :-)

	i may have over-reacted.  some of the material sent to the
-chat list in the last month has been sufficient to make me consider
either unsubscribing or using a kill file for the first time since i
have joined the project. ;(

> 
> On the other hand, there are reasons one might have valid concerns about
> such a concentration of power and the enormous potential for abuses of
> the same.

	indeed, the potential for abuse is very great.  we have been
fortunate in this country that to a large extent politics have
remained outside the Fed.  One item that all the various interests can
agree upon unreservedly is the desireability of financial stability.
That may account for some of the Fed's success to date.

> 
> Here are a couple of dissenting viewpoints on the Fed grabbed at random
> from a quick Yahoo search:
> 
> http://webbindustries.com/spotlight/f_fr_art001.html
> http://www.seidata.com/~neusys/colm0046.html
> 
> No claims made to support the accuracy of these articles, but it does
> show that I am not alone in possessing a distrust of the Federal Reserve
> Bank.
> 

	The Fed was very much under attack during Volker's tenure (the
high inflation years of the 70's and 80's).
	
	We used to joke about stopping Greenspan from testifying on
capitol hill twice a year (humprey hawkins law requires that he do
so).  twice a year he would make a very significant dent in everyone's
401k.

jmb


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