"Forcing the Fed's Chairman, Ben Bernanke, to resign and abolishing the Fed is the most expeditious way to boost the dollar and help the economy recover." - Inspired by Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings

Abolishing the Federal Reserve will not solve the problem because the Government will continue to print money out of thin air. The govt. also would not support that because the politicians like the ability to tax people through inflation without the people realizing that it is a tax.

Instead of abolishing the Fed, it needs to actually focus on its stated objectives instead of doing the complete opposite.

The Fed is supposed to focus on high employment, stable prices and economics growth (among other things), while avoiding booms and busts.

It has failed miserably, but that is because it primarily focuses on keeping financial power among a small set of people and transferring wealth from one segment of the population to another.

Moving the dollar back to the gold standard would do far more for the economy than abolishing the Fed because it makes it impossible to create money out of thin air and artificially manipulate interest rates.

Clearly Jim Rogers is overreacting and so the answer is no. Abolishing the Fed would create an atmosphere where deflation would run rampant. For all their efforts to stave off inflation, such a move would place the nation at high risk in the other direction.

Bernanke is in a tough spot and I respect the fact that he's at least trying something. Mr. Rogers' answer amounts to closing up shop, going home and doing nothing. That's worse! Leaders make the big call. Now I don't agree with bailing out banks and rich people for their mistakes but this is a unique situation where failure to do so in some form will have repercussions that will put this country in a bad spot for at least the next decade. You hope however that the mistakes these banks made inspire new laws and regulations that will protect the US from their greed in the future.

A few things here...
1) Bernanke is doing a decent job given the hand he's been dealt. I'd like to see Jim Rogers try to do much better in this environment
2) Truth is that the Fed doesn't have many tools left in its toolbox. Their primary lever, the fed funds rate, is a relatively useless tool right now. If we were facing more textbook economic challenges, the Fed funds rate is an effective tool. But we're on the brink of a much nastier collapse, and it's one that the Fed will have a tough, if not impossible, time controlling.
3) The weak dollar is one of the few things that has actually helped our economy recently. It's spurring exports, which both contributes to GDP and helps our trade deficit. Those are good things. Perhaps more importantly, there are many global factors contributing to the dollar's weakness over which the Fed has no control.

Tell me, Jim, how exactly would your plan boost the dollar? And then I'd love to know specifically how a stronger dollar would help our economy recover. If only our problems were so superficial...

Jim Rogers seems to be typical of American Financiers. Produce nothing, any suck the life out of anyone that can. His belief that Asia is up and coming because the people are driven and motivated contrasted against modern Americans and Europeans who have lost their edge is a prime example of his distorted thinking.

The dollars lost value is a reflection of our perceived contributions to the world's markets. We are in high levels of debt driven by the flawed political positions of the past 8 years. We are facing the 3rd major financial crisis after the S&L scandals of the 80s, the internet stock run ups of the 90s, and the current sub prime mortgage fiasco.

Bernanke and the fed are the least of our problems. It is our massive debt financed by the middle-east and investment in cheap labor abroad. It isn't the drive and work ethic that makes Asia so competitive. It is their relative cost of living because they have been so fucking poor for so long. Indian software programmers are far less productive then those found in the US. It is our the 3 to 1 wage difference that draws our development dollars overseas.

Some say that the weak dollar actually helps our economy by creating demand abroad for our products. That would be great if we still actually produced something other than debt.

The Fed should be abolished. The money system in the USA should be in the hands of the US Government, and not a profit driven group of International Bankers who's only interest is to make more money at the expense of the American people.

It's also importnat that we go back to a Gold Standard. Sincee 1971 when Nixon took us off the gold standard the American people have been getting taxed through inflation just as David mentions in his comment. Each time we do a government bailout, a stimulu package, or something else (Fannie & Freddie on the horizon) we're passing the bill over to the average citizen by devaluing their current money whether it's in their wallet or their 401K.

Whatever you do, please be skeptical of a one world currency system, or anything remotely similiar (even electronic). You will become a total slave to your currency, and without competing currencies amongst nations it's going to be very difficult to release yourself from the ownership of the world bankers. Think about it.......the indians lived for hundreds or thousands of years without currency......don't let these New World Order agenda pushing bankers gain more control of the world systems through currency.

This is a moot argument. The federal reserve IS the dollar (unfortunately). Granted, there are other, probably better, options, but then what happens with all these 'federal reserve notes'?

The Fed is a private bank. I find it insane that we have given this kind of power to an intitution (made up of private citizens) who are unelected, unacountable (in any real sense) where We the taxpayers buy Federal Reserve Notes from. Why not cut out the middle man and buy direct from Treasury?

Hogwash. The dollar has risen recently. One solution is to completely gut Congress and put in some real people with common sense. Another is to strengthen the anti-monopoly laws and gut the big businesses that are getting rich on the bowed and bloody backs of the working people.

Since 40% of the national debt is owed to the unconstitutional-privately held Federal Reserve Bank, one way they could relieve some stress is erase that debt...

Read Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins...it woke me up.

Get rid of the Fed Reserve and Bush Administration and start running the US economy as an integral part of the new global system. Nation-State entities such as the Fed Reserve no longer have the control they had in C20th because there is a new world order. Bush administration tax cuts were premised on the old theory of trickle down benefits - these never eventuated. Over the past 8 years the purchasing power of working families has declined not increased. The only saving grace for those families was the US housing bubble that resulted from the expansion of money supply by Fed Reserve and most recently by the Democrats in the Congress with their billions of spending to support families. The elephant in the room is always the spending on the Iraq War - it has pumped $US into the global at a rate not seen since the Vietnam War. This flood of $US into the global economy was responsible for the sub-prime debacle. Sub-prime was the result of bankers trying to invest an excess of liquidity - I support what they did but I do not support them not continuing to lend when the pressure when on working families. Bankers came up with an innovation that really made sense until went too far and failed to fully price the risk they carried when they swapped debt for paper (assets?). At this point the investment bankers did not know what risk they held - they still don't in many instances. So they failed to back the lending regimes they had helped to create and as a consequence the housing bubble burst all over US consumers. The new power in the global economy is not the G8 or Fed Reserve it is the Sovereign Wealth funds and global companies or systems. Nation-State regulation of economies are C20th mechanisms and they are not suited to C21st networked global economic circumstances. Let's debate this proposal - it has a lot of merit. Obama in the White House with Democrats in majority in Congress is a fascinating prospect. Will they try to be protectionist? Let's hope not - if they do take that policy route then this debate about the role of the Fed Reserve becomes even more important.