If the FED is a private institution does that mean that the economic crisis was caused by the free-market?

Richard Posner is a very mixed bag. With his head in the books, rather than dealing with reality, his parents parents were member of the Communist Party (CPUSA), yet he is a "conservative".

I am so sorry, but I remember Barry Goldwater and he was a conservative. Richard Posner, sir, is no conservative.

Posner collects massive amounts of "data" into his head and "correlates" it, but seem unable to identify, recognize or operate from principle.

Saying that the free market is to blame for the current economic mess is like saying that if you get mugged, then you are to blame. No surprise, this is a common elitist position.

The Fed never arose from the "free market". It does not supply any commodity, something that someone would pay for. No one would buy counterfeit. Gold (etc) arose as money because it was valued for itself for many purposes, and had the other characteristics necessary to be money (scarcity, divisibility, durability, portability, etc).

The Fed was created by Congress as a private (unanswerable to the people) institution for "private" gain for legally privileged people (the elite), who not surprisingly become incomprehensibly wealthy and use that to buy more favors from unscrupulous politicians, including destruction of America.

Whatever circulates as a "medium of exchange" is currency. Mostly currency is not money, though widely called that. Money is a store of value as well as a medium of exchange. What we have now is NOT a store of value, and therefore FRN's are a medium of exchange WITHOUT being a store of value, and without full, and no longer any, backing from real money. This is legalized counterfeit, a form of fraud.

In a Free Market, fraud, including counterfeit, would be outlawed. Fractional reserve banking is a form of fraud via counterfeit. Failure to recognize this and act on it early in American history paved the way for the institutionalization of fraud in the form of the Federal Reserve. Fractional reserve banking should have been outlawed . Instead it was institutionalized. Cancer.

While the Fed is privately owned that does NOT mean that "it is the free market" or even a legitimate part of it. Instead, it is a government created and privileged entity, for the sake of destroying Freedom, market or personal.

A free market with a central bank is a contradiction in terms. As long as there is a central bank, it is not a free market.

There is an error in your logic, and it goes like this. Free market capitalism is characterized by an absence of government interference in the private economy. There are many ways the government can interfere. It can do so directly with taxes, fees, regulations, and subsidies. It can also interfere indirectly by granting special powers and privileges to private institutions like the FED. The FED is private, but it's powers come from the government. There was NOTHING 'free' about the financial system during the 2008 collapse, so you can not blame the meltdown on free market capitalism.

Because the very existence of the Fed. obviates part of the definition of c itself. You can't have central banking & coercive legal tender laws while attacking all privately-issued currencies for their very honesty and still call it "capitalism." It's certainly something sorta resembling capitalism (less and less...) but we lost capitalism for good when Tricky closed the Gold Window. That was it, and that act set us on course for this clusterfuck. Capitalism, as usual, had nothing to do with what Tricky Dick did to the USA.

I'm not an anarchist, but as Stephan Molyneux says, someone needs to point out the "gun in the room".

In this case, it would be the coercive force that backs the legal tender laws.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

The federal reserve has nothing to do with free market economics. It is a private institution with federal powers (above many laws) and finds its way above just about every law.

The Federal Reserve is a private banking cartel that has hijacked the government and destroyed the free market.

This is like saying "Derrr whut ifff the Mafia caused collapse through cooking the books and murder--isn't that deeerr free markets?"

No, it's not obviously to anyone with a brain.

It's a powerplay and manipulation of markets by rogue interests.

I know in your head you like to think your ideas are original, fresh, and revolutionary, but they aren't.

This is a common misconception shared by Obama Supporters sans blaming the Fed (they just blame everyone under an umbrella of ambiguity).

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Glen Beck -- An Exposed Enemy:
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/90198
Glenn Beck Supports NAFTA and taking your job:
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/86643

Federal Reserve owners are presumed to be:

Rothschild (London, Paris & Berlin),
Lazard Bros. (Paris),
Israel Seiff (Italy),
Kuhn-Loeb Co. (Germany),
Warburg Co. (Hamburg & Amsterdam),
Lehman Bros. (NY), Goldman Sachs (NY),
Rockefeller family (NY), and
J.P. Morgan interests (NY).

It is presumed 68% of the Federal Reserve is in the hands of the Europeans, through their banking interests, and 32% is in U.S. hands. [source unknown]

International currency is the primary goal. SDRs have the ISO 4217 currency code XDR.
I would like to see PMs as legal tender, but I believe we will have to face down the bankers and deal with their XDRs first. The XDRs are being used to measure the value of all currencies around the world, including gold and silver. If you think the Fed, and those in cahoots can manipulate gold and silver, wait and see how much manipulation is going to happen with the IMF in control.
Obama signed an agreement taking the first step, get a copy and read the details. The IMF is replacing the Federal Reserve and the SDR (XDR) is replacing the FRN.
grant

a) FED caused the current economic crisis
b) FED is owned and operated by criminal psychopaths
c) therefore criminal psychopaths are to blame for the current economic crisis

It's a government agency under the guise of being a private institution.

The Fed is not a private institution. It is a cartel, with a government monopoly. Its sole purpose is to manipulate the money market, which is the exact opposite of "free market."

Legal Tender Laws (Government) force us to use Fed money. Definately a dictated market, not a free one.

a reflection of Free Markets?

THIS IS STUPID...

THE PROFESSOR IS STUPID.

THIS IGNORAMUS IS TEACHING PEOPLE?

"Private institutions" that have their monopolies backed up by government force have nothing to do with a free market.

Because it interfered and interferes with the free market setting of the price of money, i.e., interest rates. In a free market, the market would decide the cost of money, not a corporation or some hybrid form of same.

Duh to Posner...Here that, Posner? That's the clue phone...