The Problem
I was reading someone calling for Quantitative Easing, but Quantitative easing has little effect on the economy. The Banks will only loan to folks who aren't underwater, owing more than they are worth -- and to folks who have the surety to provide something the bank can take if the business fails. The term for an economy that is over-leveraged is a "liquidity trap." Quantitative easing is a waste of public money when banks won't lend to the people the Fed claims it intends to be helping. We saw that in 2009-2012 when the banks foreclosed like crazy on ordinary people -- and bought each other out -- instead of helping those people get a job.
- To borrow money on the credit of the United States
- To regulate Commerce
- To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin,
Emitting bills of credit (money) is a power implied from the power to borrow money and the prohibition of that power to the States in Section 10. Rather than our country passing a constitution to make that power explicit, the USA has let the courts define whether the Federal Government can print money, and the result has been a 200 year fight, which is ongoing. The Federal Reserve is the latest "Missouri Compromise" on this subject in the battle between centralizing bankers and local financial interests. At this point the centralizing bankers have pretty much won their war and thus we have the Fed, which does a dance between a which privatizes and privateers on the ability to "emit bills of credit" as money and to which Congress has delegated almost all the powers just listed.
