Inside The Federal Reserve: "Money For Nothing" - The Full Movie

Nearly 100 years after its creation, the power of the U.S. Federal Reserve has never been greater. Markets and governments around the world hold their breath in anticipation of the Fed Chair's every word. Yet the average person knows very little about the most powerful - and least understood - financial institution on earth. "Money For Nothing" is the first film to take viewers inside the Fed and reveal the impact of Fed policies - past, present, and future - on our lives. Join current and former Fed officials as they debate the critics, and each other, about the decisions that helped lead the global financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008. And why we might be headed there again...

It is perhaps a testament to the ability of the oligarchy (that 1% which owns some 50% of all US assets), as we noted previously, to distract and distort newsflow from what really matters, that a century after the creation of the Federal Reserve, the vast majority of Americans are still unfamiliar with the most important institution in the history of the US - an institution that unlike the government is not accountable to the people (if only as prescribed on a piece of rapidly amortizing paper), but merely to a few banker stakeholders as Bernanke's and Yellen's actions over the past six years have demonstrated beyond any doubt. It is for their benefit that Jim Bruce's groundbreaking movie "Money for Nothing" is a must see, although we would urge everyone else, including those frequent Zero Hedge readers well-versed in the inner workings of the Fed, to take the two hours and recall just who the real enemy of the people truly is.

A quick note on producer, director and writer Jim Bruce. While Jim has been a student of financial markets for over a decade, and began writing a newsletter in 2006 warning about the oncoming financial crisis, what is perhaps most notable is that it was his short trades in 2007 and 2008 that helped finance a significant portion of Money For Nothing’s budget.

However, most impressive is Bruce's ability to bring together such a broad and insightful cast which includes both current and former Fed members, as well as some of the most outspoken Fed critics, among which:

  • Paul Volcker
  • Janet Yellen
  • Alice Rivlin
  • Alan Blinder
  • Richard Fisher
  • Thomas Hoenig
  • Jeffrey Lacker
  • Jim Grant
  • Allan Meltzer
  • Raghuram Rajan
  • Charles Plosser
  • Tony Boeckh
  • Jeremy Grantham
  • Todd Harrison

... and many others.

From the film's official website:

MONEY FOR NOTHING is a feature-length documentary about the Federal Reserve - made by a Team of AFI, Sundance, and Academy Award winners – that seeks to unveil America’s central bank and its impact on our economy and our society.

Current and former top economists, financial historians, and investors and traders provide unprecedented access and take viewers behind the curtain to debate the future of the world’s most powerful financial institution.

Digging beneath the surface of the 2008 crisis, Money For Nothing is the first film to ask why so many facets of our financial system seemed to self-destruct at the same time. For many economists and senior Fed officials, the answer is clear: the same Fed that put out 2008’s raging financial fire actually helped light the match years before.

As the global financial system continues to falter, the Federal Reserve finds itself at a crossroads. The choices it makes will greatly influence the kind of world our children and grandchildren inherit. How can the Federal Reserve steer our nation toward a more sustainable path? How can the American people – who the Fed was created to serve - influence an institution whose inner workings they may not understand?

The key tenet underlying Money For Nothing is our belief that a more fully and accurately informed public will promote greater accountability and more effective policies from our central bank - no matter the conclusions any individual draws from the film.

Sadly this is where we differ, for it is Zero Hedge's opinion that not only is it now far too late to promote any type of change at the top, but the best policy is to urge the Fed on in its ludicrous policies, in order to lead to the catastrophic culmination of 100 years of disastrous wealth-transfer policies, which unfortunately is the only possible way a cleansing systemic reset - one that would finally eradicate the scourge of central-planning - can be unleashed upon a broken and malfunctioning system in its final throes of status quo existence.

Then again, perhaps there is a chance...

Enjoy The Full Movie... (Jim Grant's words in the first minute alone are worth the price of admission)...

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Moon Kil Woong 10 years ago Contributor's comment

It is too bad the movie doesn't cover the first two US central banks and why they failed. It's assumptions are also wrong. Keeping rates low has already gotten the economy to depend on a oversupply of money with corrupt people feeding off of money that provides wealth without goods and services. That has already raised prices. Any cuts to this will lead to people clinging to money and the scarcity of money not the profusion of monetary activity will ensue.

Furthermore, that which will deflate will be the investment assets banks have bet on more than consumer prices. Thus an asset bubble is really what the Fed is protecting to protect banks, not the public as it has been doing for the last 20 years. Inflation is not the problem and arguments about it prevent any solution. Deflation of assets is the issue because they are dependent on the continuation of absurd unsustainable policies.

The film is correct in that the Federal Reserve should not regulate and does not regulate and that the Federal Reserve is engaged in protecting TBTF institutions and actively inflating the market much like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still inflating the housing market.

The film is also right that the Federal Reserve has ruined every tool they had to regulate the economy by abusing their power. Sadly the Federal Reserve also plays the devil trying to stimulate people to do exactly that which is bad for them. Few realize how this benefits the very banks the Federal Reserve supports which leads them into a very diabolical conflict of interest.

The simple fact is the Federal Reserve needs to be stripped of regulatory abilities and it needs to be given to a real regulatory arm. Arguably the Federal Reserve needs regulating as well since their aim is clearly for their own self interest and popularity regardless of the true cost to society. The Federal Reserve is a tool of the government and supports planned socialized economics not unlike communist nations. Capitalism needs to resume the pedestal and monetary policy needs to be toned town to allow true economic signaling and costs for bad behavior and rewards for proper behavior to manifest themselves.

Sadly the Federal Reserve has become a enemy to the very capitalism they are sworn to protect. The eventual result will be fatal for the American citizen well before it is fatal to the hordes of pigs sucking from the free spigot they supply. There is a reason why the central bank was dissolved 2x by the US. We should realize why so many were against the creation of a 3rd one.