Not Your Average Financial Podcast™

Not Your Average Financial Podcast™


Episode 266: The Federal Reserve vs. Your Fractal Reserve

October 07, 2022

In this episode, we ask:


  • What is the average retirement age for many Americans now?
  • Are people retiring later?
  • What is the average income and average net worth of these Americans?
  • How much?
  • What or who is the wizard behind the curtain?

Thanks to Tom Woods and the many historians and economists I cite in this episode!


  • What was the original job of the Federal Reserve?
  • What does flexible mean in the context of currency and the Federal Reserve?
  • What are shadow economics?
  • What happened in December of 1913?
  • What has happened with inflation?
  • How was the Fed originally created?
  • Would you like to hear Episode 56?
  • Are we now in a better place?
  • What did Christina Romer discover?
  • What about the frequency, length and duration of recessions?
  • What about price stability?
  • What about deflation?
  • What about output volatility?
  • What did Richard Timberlake say about monetary history?
  • What happened in the 19th century?
  • What about the gold standard?
  • What about the bank panic of 1819?
  • What was Thomas Jefferson’s plan?
  • What about the panic of 1873?
  • What about the gilded age?
  • How was life different for people born in 1860 vs. 1890?
  • How did prices drop?
  • How did America transform?
  • When was the gold standard restored?
  • What was unit banking?
  • How did the farming calendar affect the bank?
  • What about artificial fragility?
  • How was Canada different?
  • Could the U.S. have avoided bank panics?
  • What did Milton Friedman say?
  • Was the Fed successful at stopping bank panics?
  • What about deposit insurance in 1934?
  • …How many banking panics?!
  • Was the Fed not prepared to handle it?
  • What is the Cantillon effect?
  • How does money creation affect people differently?
  • Where are the top 5 wealthiest counties in the U.S.?
  • What about moral hazard?
  • Should prices fall?
  • What about goods and services?
  • What do banks create?
  • What about fractional reserve notes?
  • What about savers?
  • What about losing out due to inflation?
  • What about investments?
  • What about holding on to your cash?
  • What about maintaining your purchasing power?
  • Is this working?
  • How do we escape the boiling pot?
  • How might you take steps to increase your own money supply?