Aspies For Freedom

What about the FDIC insured 4 or 5% savings accounts like with HSBC Direct (no fee no minimum),  also see if IMG Direct doesn't have an FDIC one too.

Writers talk so freely about everybody being in debt it amazes us who are not.  If the whole debt thing brings down the economy it will hurt everyone whether they owe or not.

People do not seem to understand that debt is slavery.

Some people might have thought it extreme to annihilate a student loan that could not exceed 8% when investments might go higher, but having a zero or positive balance is freedom and I thought it worth it.

Why do lenders charge such usurious interests?
Because they can, especially those payday lenders

What about it?  If you don't like their business practices, go to another bank or stuff your money under your mattress.   Banks are required to publish what their fees and charges are, it's up to you to read them and know to avoid them.

I would never in my lifetime save enough money to buy a house without taking out a loan.  So what are the options?  In rental accomodation I can't put up a hook to hang a painting or even grow a flower without permission, and a stranger can demand to inspect my home whenever they like as long as they fill out a form first, and kick me out when it suits them.  And it would cost me just as much as paying off my own little home.  Instead of that money going towards MY investment, it's going towards someone else's.

I've recently bought a house (go me!!!!) so I have a ginormous morgage and yeah, assuming I don't win a lottery I'm a wage slave for the rest of my life.  BUT that house was a good investment - I've had work done, so it's worth more than I paid for it.  If something goes horribly wrong with my finances, I can sell it and I'd probably make a profit.  If that's slavery, it's OK by me.

The treasury prints money according to the borrowings of the federal reserve.

The federal reserve banks borrow through treasury bonds, and notes and "money is printed against these holdings". Any martians, cretans etc., that we owe debt to are from among treasury bond holders, which could include anyone, from an idividual to a foreign country.

http://www.friesian.com/money.htm

With the United States government this occurs through a kind of shell game. The Treasury was wisely prohibited from just printing and spending money. It sells bonds to get extra money, i.e. borrows it from the public. However, the Federal Reserve System can buy Treasury bonds, both directly and indirectly. The effect of that is for the Federal Reserve to print the money and then give it to the Treasury. The Federal Reserve then holds the bonds and collects interest on the debt, which it then turns over, with all its earnings, to the Treasury. The Federal Reserve can also buy any bonds or securities on the public market, which is the same as printing money and loaning it to anyone. When the Federal Reserve loans money directly to member banks of the Federal Reserve System, the interest rate it charges is called the "discount rate." The discount rate is the only link between interest rates and inflation, since a higher rate discourages banks from borrowing (newly created) money from the Fed and a lower rate encourages it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System

The Federal Reserve Banks have an intermediate status, with some features of private corporations and some features of public federal agencies (see below). Each member bank owns nonnegotiable shares of stock in its regional Federal Reserve Bank—but these shares of stock give the member banks only limited control over the actions of the Federal Reserve Banks, and the charter of each Federal Reserve Bank is established by law and cannot be altered by the member banks. In Lewis v. United States,[17] the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated that "the Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the FTCA [the Federal Tort Claims Act], but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations." The opinion also stated that "the Reserve Banks have properly been held to be federal instrumentalities for some purposes." Another decision is Scott v. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City[18] in which the distinction between the Federal Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors is made.

The member banks are privately owned corporations. The stocks of many of the member banks (or their holding companies) are publicly traded.


[edit] Organization
The basic structure of the Federal Reserve System includes:

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors
The Federal Open Market Committee
The Federal Reserve Banks
The member banks.
Each Federal Reserve Bank and each member bank of the Federal Reserve System is subject to oversight by a Board of Governors.[19] The seven members of the board are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.[20] Members are selected to terms of 14 years (unless removed by the President), which are generally limited to one term. However, if someone is appointed to serve the remainder of another member's uncompleted term, he or she may be reappointed to serve an additional 14-year term.[16] Conversely, a governor may serve the remainder of another governor's term even after he or she has completed a full term.


Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.The current members of the Board of Governors are:

Ben Bernanke, Chairman
Donald Kohn, Vice-Chairman
Frederic Mishkin
Kevin Warsh
Randall Kroszner
(*Because appointments of members are staggered there are currently only five members on the board.)

All current members of the Board of Governors have taken office during the presidency of George W. Bush.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) created under 12 U.S.C. § 263 comprises the seven members of the board of governors and five representatives selected from the regional Federal Reserve Banks. The representative from the Second District, New York, (currently Timothy Geithner) is a permanent member, while the rest of the banks rotate at two- and three-year intervals.


[edit] Control of the money supply
The Federal Reserve System tries to control the size of the money supply by conducting open market operations, in which the Federal Reserve lends or purchases specific types of securities with authorized participants, known as primary dealers, such as the United States Treasury

For example, I could emigrate.

Interest seems to cover things like inflation, or more collectively, people who can not or will not pay back their loans.

In this day and age, you probably cannot avoid borrowing for a mortgage, unless the company gives you an airplane to commute.  Sorry.

Interest also covers profit.  I forgot.

Interest is not theft.  Interest is rent.  My bank pays me rent on my money.  In return, I allow them to use it for "lending" out.  They charge rent on the money they "lend".  Since interest is charged, it's not really a "loan", but is rental of the money.  However, that concept is too complex for morons (aka most people) to understand, so it's expressed as a "loan with interest" rather than what it really is--rental of money.

If I "loan" you my hacksaw and demand payment, I'm not really loaning it, I'm renting it.  The same is true of money.

Your bank does not have interest for its ordinary savings accounts?

They do.  It's called "interest" and is paid on a large number of accounts, including ordinary saving accounts.

False.  Credit unions can and do charge higher rates than this on various loans.

Please prove that the UK is THE ONLY COUNTRY IN EXISTENCE AND THE ENTIRE WORLD IS UNDER UK JURISDICTION!

The unqualified claim that credit unions cannot charge more than 1% interest is FALSE.  My own credit union does so--IT'S NOT IN THE UK.

America is a free country.  The banks are free to screw you as they see fit.

America did not and does not have enlightened principles of government that is why we declared independence.  
So, for example, Lincoln freed the slaves 22 years after Wilberforce did, and only after a major civil war bloodbath
You have national health care we don't
Students and their families assume the full responsibility for higher education in America

I concede youe Enlightened point.. We hold these truths to be self-evident... that all men are created equal....

I concede a mathematical error too

1865, North wins Civil War, 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

1833, Wilberforce abolishes slavery in British Empire


1865 - 1833 = 32, not 22

1839 (Amistad, Captain Fitzgerald: Ensign, take a letter.....    my Dear Mr. Forsythe, the slave factory does not in fact exist (any more)....)

Because the military dictatorship that had been imposed on the colonies shortly before the Declaration is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH MORE ENLIGHTENED!

Have you ever actually studied history?

Great Britain had imposed a military dictatorship upon the colonies, denying them ANY AND ALL REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT.  Military officials in the colonies had the explicit authority to seize any property or person on any pretext.  

How about you try North Korea?  They're "enlightened"--just ask 'em!  They've got TOTALLY NATIONALIZED HEALTH CARE!