The Bill Walton Show: Episode 02 – Bill sits down with two of The Heritage Foundation’s top economic experts – Jack Spencer and Norbert Michel – to discuss economic policy, tax reform, the Paris Climate Agreement, Dodd-Frank and more.

Is the Federal Reserve a godlike Zeus able to control our money and the economy, preserve financial stability and keep a lid on inflation? 

Or is it like the Wizard of Oz? A little man behind the curtain pulling levers to create smoke and noise to terrify and control people, but in the end only one market participant among many worldwide. 

If you’re a bond trader in New York, trying to predict minute day to day changes in interest rates, it’s more like Zeus. For the rest of us, I believe, it’s like Oz. 

If the Fed brought home a report card reflecting its performance since its creation in 1914, its parents would not be pleased. Its record for stability is among the worst in the developed world, and it has done little to fix the problems it was invented to address.

A slew of financial crises that stretch all the way back to the banking Panic of 1907 have been exploited to justify erecting a financial regulatory system that has vastly centralized and expanded federal power over our money.