Fed to hold forum to boost small-business lending … The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will hold a forum next week to explore ways to improve the flow of lending to small businesses. It's the latest effort by the Fed to tackle the problem, which dates back to the 2008 financial crisis. Congress and the White House also want to see banks lend more to small businesses. Small businesses — more so than big companies — rely on bank loans to expand operations and hire. Small businesses usually help drive job creation during recoveries but tight credit has hurt hiring. Leaders from small businesses, trade group, financial institutions among others will participate in the July 12 conference. – AP
Dominant Social Theme: The Federal Reserve is doing its best to support small businesses.
Free-market Analysis: We thought this was an interesting article from the Associated Press because it shows so clearly how the power elite's dominant social themes operate. The Federal Reserve itself is an immensely destructive economic force as are central banks generally. By printing money out of nothing, central banks create the inflation that bankers maintain they are dedicated to fighting. By printing money out of nothing, central banks destroy the businesses that bankers claim they are supporting. Another variant of this dominant social theme would be: "The Federal Reserve is fighting for the little guy."
Of course this is not true. Central banks generally print too much money, debase the currency, and cause terrible busts that wipe out the businesses and undermine economies. Yet mercantilist central banking as it is practiced in the West is wonderfully subtle propaganda. Having created the problem in a way that most people (at least pre-internet) could never figure out, those who run these banks were free to spend most of their time posing as problem SOLVERS. Here's some more from the article:
The conference comes after the Fed has held a series of more than 40 regional meetings this year on the matter. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (above left) has acknowledged that it is hard to tell whether the problem is more reflective of banks shying away from making loans to small business or a lack of demand from those companies. Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill have complained that small businesses that want to take out loans are having trouble getting them, while some banks say demand is weak. The Fed has urged banks to make loans to creditworthy small businesses. Lending to small businesses has declined even as the economy has improved. Lending has dropped from almost $700 billion in the second quarter of 2008, a period when the country was embroiled in a financial crisis, to $660 billion in the first quarter of this year.
The amount of money that is wasted by the Federal Reserve, and central banking in general (excluding the actual process itself) is fairly phenomenal. Here we have the Fed holding 40 – count 'em, 40 – regional meetings about stimulating small business lending. What is said in these meetings? Here's what Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, should say, though we are sure he doesn't:
"Hello, folks. It is true that the Federal Reserve in particular and central banks generally managed to cause the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression by printing endless amounts of paper money. These caused businesses, large and small, to misread economic signals and led to widespread mal-investment. Businesses borrowed when they should have saved and expanded when they should have hunkered down. As a result, many businesses, large and small ended up in deep trouble when the downturn hit. Here at the Fed, we helped organize a rescure for large businesses, especially in the financial industry. But we sure didn't do anything for the entrepreneur and small businessman. That's why many of them went out of businesses. Now we're holding meetings to discuss the problem – one which, admittedly, we caused."
Inflation .. contraction. Central banks pour into the economy and then those in charge profess to be concerned about the results. Perhaps they go on tour and generally profess their concern. It is an absolutely remarkable feat of public relations in our opinion. And like many of the elite's most effective promotions it has emerged over hundreds of years and has been simplified, refined and ever-more effectively repositioned for the same length of time.
From our point of view central banks are among the most incredible marketing devices ever created. A small elite controls the power to print money out of nothing and to distribute that money basically as it sees fit. This same elite experiences the benefits of this money while others, who receive the money later are subject to its falling value.
Finally, this elite is able to spend most of its time decrying the very manifestations of the process that they control and utilize and even use their influence and control over regulatory regimes, sanctioned by governments and trumpeted by their mainstream media holdings, to silence those not in sync with their game. In these past few years, central banks generally and the Federal Reserve in particular, has virtually bankrupted millions of entrepreneurs and small businesses. Abroad, central bankers and their banks have done the same.
That people do not fully realize the havoc the central banks regularly cause is in part because the mainstream media does a lousy job of reporting on it and because the Fed itself spends a great deal of time acting concerned about the damage it has wrought. Public relation is actually integral to the functioning of these banks. It is part of what comes naturally. Yes, perhaps this is an obvious point, but it is an important one. The strategy has worked for such a long time. However, we would suggest that conditions have changed and that the methodology needs updating. More and more people are peering behind the curtain, as more and more is revealed. And more, we would suggest, don't like what they see.
