Report: Its YOUR Fault: Fed Says Americans Who Hoard Money Are To Blame For Poor EconomyMac Slavo The question that many are asking is, how did this happen? How, after six years of recovery efforts and trillions of dollars printed, is it possible that the economy is not booming again? This week the Federal Reserve published a report that claims to have figured it out and it turns out that the renewed economic downturn has nothing to do with foreign outsourcing, high taxation, increased health care costs for business or rising consumer prices for food and energy. No, according to the Fed it is your fault. Apparently, you are not spending enough money. In order for the economy to recover you need to stop hoarding cash now and get out there and start buying more homes, cars, vacations, and electronics. Otherwise, youll only have yourself to blame when the system comes unhinged. From the St. Louis Federal Reserve: The issue has to do with the velocity of money, which has never been constant, as can be seen in the figure below. If for some reason the money velocity declines rapidly during an expansionary monetary policy period, it can offset the increase in money supply and even lead to deflation instead of inflation. [] During the first and second quarters of 2014, the velocity of the monetary base2was at 4.4, its slowest pace on record. This means that every dollar in the monetary base was spent only 4.4 times in the economy during the past year, down from 17.2 just prior to the recession. This implies that the unprecedented monetary base increase driven by the Feds large money injections through its large-scale asset purchase programs has failed to cause at least a one-for-one proportional increase in nominal GDP. Thus, it is precisely the sharp decline in velocity that has offset the sharp increase in money supply, leading to the almost no change in nominal GDP [] So why did the monetary base increase not cause a proportionate increase in either the general price level or GDP? The answer lies in the private sectors dramatic increase in their willingness to hoard money instead of spend it. Such an unprecedented increase in money demand has slowed down the velocity of money. Top tier economists, it seems, are unablegrasp why consumers have decided to hoard in other words, save their money even though the central bank is engagedin an unprecedented monetary expansion. The answer is simple, really, and you dont need to look at detailed government charts and statistics to figure it out. American consumers have been absolutely pummeled over the last decade. We are losing so many jobs that newly created minimum wage jobs touted by the Obama administration arent even making a dent. Moreover, the price of food, electricity, gas and other essentials have risen so sharply that were paying nearly double for those items today than we did a decade ago. And, as recently noted by The Economic Collapse Blog, over 77 million Americans currently have debt collection accounts and 25% of Americans have absolutely no emergency cash whatsoever. Its not so much that Americans are hoarding money, a phrase that suggests greedy people all over the country are stackingpiles of cash under their mattresses. Its that most Americans dont have any money left to spend. The Daily Bellsaysthat the Federal Reserve andthe U.S. government are now creating a new narrative to be spewed by their mainstream media propaganda arms, wherein the blame for this will fall squarely on the American people: Sometimes Federal Reserve white papers attract attention and this one does because of the term hoarding money. This is a startling phrase and who knows perhaps it marks the beginning of a new meme. Certainly the word hoarding is a popular one with government officials. When governments are uncomfortable with the actions of citizens for whatever reason, the term hoarding is often applied to stigmatize certain behaviors and encourage others. This isnt the first time government officials and their quasi-government counterparts have targeted hoarders as evil doers. They have done it before and the evidence suggests they are going to do it again as soon as the right crisis takes hold. In 2012 President Obama signed a an Executive Doomsday Order that was designed specifically to target hoarders during a national emergency: Whilemillions of people have been preparingfor the possibility of a catastrophic event by relocating to rural homesteads or farms, as well as stockpiling food, water, personal defense armaments and other essential supplies with the intention of utilizing these preparations if the worst happens, the latest executive order signed by President Obama on March 16, 2012 makes clear that in the event of a nationally deemed emergencyall of these resources will fall under the authority of the United States government. The signing of theNational Defense Resources Preparedness executive ordergrantsthe Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense and other agencies complete control of all US resources, including the ability to seize, confiscate or re-delegate resources,materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense as delegated by the following agencies But what is hoarding? According to David Spero of Code Green Prep, its whatever they say it is. Right now, tens of millions of Americans are unable to put food on the table or pay their most basic expenses, yet the Federal Reserve claims that were hoarding money. In an emergency, theyll make similar claims. Hoarding of Just About Anything Can Be Banned These definitions are written in to the 1950 War and National Defense Defense (sic) Production Act, and so lets see what the act itself has to say for itself. Go directly to section 2072. Thats the key part from our perspective. 2072. Hoarding of designated scarce materials In order to prevent hoarding,no person shall accumulate (1) in excess of the reasonable demands of business, personal,or home consumption, or (2) for the purpose of resale at prices in excess of prevailing market prices, materials which have been designated by the President asscarce materials or materials the supply of which would be threatened by such accumulation.The President shall order published in the Federal Register, and in such other manner as he may deem appropriate, every designation of materials the accumulation of which is unlawful and any withdrawal of such designation. So the President can simply say that anything more than (for example) a weeks supply of food (and all the other things listed) is an amount in excess of the reasonable demands of personal consumption and then order the Army to impound everything you have in excess of that amount. Now, as we face a crisis in America on a scale never before seen, the government is attempting to change the story. In the end, when the worst of it hits and people start rioting in the streets because they cant afford food or shelter, theyll turn the blame on the hoarders who have selfishly saved cash and precious metals, storedlong-term foods for an emergency, and prepared to deal with the very situation the politicians, central bankers and business elite have created. Once the meme is pushed in earnest across the media networks, it will only be a matter of time before the crowds turn their attention to those greedy hoarders who caused this crisis in the first place. Those who hoardresources illegally will have their supplies seized and will likely be detained for actions akin to terrorism, while those who see something and say something will be rewarded with a cut of the booty. This may sound outlandish, until you consider that this is how all tyrants and authoritarian governments have operated since the beginning of human civilization. Hoarders beware. Theyll be coming for you. You can read more from Mac Slavo at his site SHTFplan.com, where this first appeared. 