Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve

This documentary along with "The Flaw" and "Too Big to Fail" help to explain the causes behind the '08 housing and financial collapse. "Money for Nothing" puts a spotlight on the Federal Reserve, or the "Fed" for short. Various economists chime in about the policies of primarily Alan Greenspan while he was the Fed chair. As one economist put it:

"The nation's most powerful banking regulator considered regulation obsolete."

But that wasn't entirely true. He practiced hands off until the banks were in trouble, then it was all hands on deck. If banks got into hot water with risky practices they could rely upon the "Greenspan put." This prompted one economist to say:

"This alleged libertarian was presiding over the socialization of risk in our economy."

While another stated, "Banks were spared of the free market's rule of survival of the fittest."

It's an interesting documentary while still being upsetting because yet again you see that there are a different set of rules for banks and corporations than for the rest of us. If banks make bad bets, "Don't worry about it, you have a safety net." If YOU make bad financial decisions, "You need to make smarter decisions, you peon."

At least that's what I continue to hear.

Free on Tubi TV.

When everything is going well people likes it and try to avoid thinking about reaction of their action. It's only when things are not doing well people(us) starts thinking that OMG what have we did wrong, at this time instead of looking for short term gain and quick fix we should work on the shortcomings so that we can avoid problem in future.

However history repeats it self ! and after some times people will again start thing this time it's different. Let's see what will happen in 2020 interest rate are now again at 0%.

----- For people like me : "I am just a little guy, what can I do?" Answer is instead of playing crooked finance tricks or following into idea of get rich quick

• work hard, as best as you can
• Improve your skills by learning new things
• Save your money & invest it wisely

and you will be on your way to peaceful life instead of stuck into BOOM and BUST cycle.

This was very disappointing. Every talking head and expert in this "documentary" have a vested interest in the continuation of the FED. This does not equate to a well rounded documentary, this is what we call propaganda kids. It's like Monsanto making a "cutting edge no holds bar" documentary about...well...Monsanto.

The blatant fraud of the Fed can be seen in it's name: It's no more federal than Federal Express and it has no reserves, it just prints all the money it wants without any accountability or backing. A federal Reserve note (dollar bill) has no more significance than if I printed a dollar from my computer. This worthless money is then loaned to our government at a 6% interest rate and we pay the bill.! There is no ballot measure that we voted on, there is no say what-so-ever from the people, the government can borrow all they want from the FED and have no accountability to the people. How in the hell does this make it good for the people?! They create money out of thin air and charge interest from it! That's fraud!

The president of the US does in fact choose who runs the Fed, but guess what the film "forgot" to mention? The Fed gives the president a list of people to choose from! Ha! Bet you didn't know that?

The Federal Reserve is far more harmful than this documentary makes it out to be.

The FED can single handedly crush our entire system if they wanted to, think about it. Why would this EVER be a good thing. It's no different then the medieval kings back in Europe.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -Thomas Jefferson-

The Fed also prints money out of thin air then lends it to dozens of counties around the world through organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This creates a massive inflation cycle and an outrageous bill for the American tax payers children to pay back when other countries default. Inflation is a tax, make no mistake about it. If your dollar is worth 20 cents less than it was it's no different than an increase of income tax by 20%. The only difference is, borrowing from the FED is not out in the open like an income tax, it's in the background and mostly all Americans never catch onto this. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve System, 90%!! of our dollar has been eaten away by inflation!

"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!"

Oh and another thing, the 12 member banks of the FED creates no safeguards against centralization. They are simply franchises of the same owner. All rules and regulations are passed down from the top (the Federal Reserve bank of New York). They are only there as an illusion of a non centralized bank, think about it; can the Federal Reserve bank in San Francisco issue a different interest rate than the one in NY? Of course not, they're all attached and they all act in unison.

Everyone should look into The Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the nation. They have no debt and have been unbelievably successful. This is the direction we need to head, we should obey and respect the 10th amendment and decentralize almost everything, let states take back what rights they use to have. This is the point of the United STATES was it not? Independent states that can independently succeed on their own. Do we really want this country to turn into The United Federation of America, a country without independent states who's sole rule maker comes from Washington DC? I don't.

This film is an obvious attempt to create the illusion that the Fed is sorry for their mistakes, but they will do better in the future. I will return my DVD to the sell-out director today. The Fed is the crux of our debt, corruption and war and this film paints them as a team of financial gods who made some mistakes, but should remain in control of our monetary system. The Federal Reserve is private group of con-artist bankers and was CREATED to monopolize the monetary system of our once great country. Shame on YOU for creating this film. I suggest reading Creature from Jekyll Island to understand the background of the greatest scam ever perpetrated on the American people and the world.

One of the best documentaries I've seen demonstrating how the role of the Federal Reserve contributed to the Financial Crisis of 2008. In the wake of the financial collapse of 2008 creating a Recession which could have led to another Great Depression, a lot of blame was leveled against Investment Banks who were vilified as being greedy, particularly Lehman Brothers and Bear-Stearns, and insurance companies like AIG who undertook too many credit default swaps. The financial banks had taken on nearly as much debt as their assets, particularly in sub-prime mortgages, and AIG had insured them against default, i.e. "default swaps". When Lehman went bankrupt, AIG owed trillions of dollars in insurance against default, which nearly brought down the financial system.

Now, while Lehman and Bear-Stearns share plenty of the blame in the recent crisis, these bad debts and faulty reliance on sub-prime mortgages were not solely private sector malfeasance. A US department agency also played a crucial role: The US Federal Reserve. The US Federal Reserve ("The Fed") since Alan Greenspan became Fed Chairman in the late 1980's under then President Ronald Reagan engaged a more "hands-off" policy in terms of financial regulation and at the same time allowed much more loan money to be acquired by these private financial institutions who in turn bought into risky investments. This documentary outlines why the Fed was created in the first place, its role over the years in terms of both regulating and stimulating financial markets and what it did and didn't do to contribute to the recent financial collapse. While I don't believe the Fed was solely responsible for the financial collapse, as suggested by the film, their policy approaches were vital as one of many contributing factors which created a financial "perfect storm".

Two of the leading characters whose roles were crucial in the Fed's policy-making in this unfolding drama were the two Fed Chairmen Alan Greenspan (1987-2006) and Ben Bernanke (2006-2014). Greenspan in particular was touted as a financial guru who understood financial markets better than a Super Bowl winning football coach understands how to get first downs and touchdowns. If Greenspan didn't know the answer to an aspect of the financial market, the question itself must be flawed, or so went the conventional wisdom for nearly 30 years. To his credit, Greenspan had steered the US economy through several storms. What he didn't know was that a financial hurricane was descending upon Wall Street.

Over and over, Greenspan had opportunities to regulate aspects of the financial markets, particularly the so-called credit default swap insurance policies, issued by the likes of AIG and others. He also could have reigned in loose lending practices. Once, early on as Fed Chairman, Greenspan hinted the stock market may be spiraling out of control, but was quickly vilified by Wall Street for his remarks. Since then, during much of his tenure, he took a position of deregulation in which "the market will figure it out" approach so prevalent in Conservative politics. Ben Bernanke, who is a self-described scholar of the Great Depression, also didn't see the financial collapse coming. In several interviews prior to the beginning of the collapse, Bernanke iterates the impossibility of a national drop in housing prices. His scholarship for some reason precluded him from seeing the coming crisis, first in terms of the bursting housing bubble, then the ensuing financial crisis which was spawned as a result.

While scholars have debated and will continue to do so over the next century over the reasons for the financial crisis, several things are clear about the Recession. The Fed contributed to the collapse with certain policies, greed does not necessarily regulate itself, and no single individual can know everything about every aspect of the market. At the ensuing congressional hearings which Congress called after the collapse, Greenspan admitted the flaws of his policies. He said he assumed that financial institutions would always make the best decisions which would be in the interest of their companies. The reality is, just like everything else in a complex modern world, the private sector cannot always be counted on to make the best of decisions, be it for their companies or the worldwide economy. The Fed has a role to play in at least helping to thwart a possible crisis in the future. That role is always endlessly debated by politicians, congressmen, financiers, advisers and occasionally scholars. Let's hope the financiers won't always get 100% of their desires.