Reform the Fed

It's a century old and has failed the American people for seven years. Time for a change.

Janet Yellen should start rethinking the Federal Reserve.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Janet Yellen has betrayed the American people and will go down as one of the worst chiefs of the Federal Reserve in history. Her decision to raise interest rates earlier this week guarantees a continuing weak recovery, suppressed wages, and entrenched inequality.

In response, the left should add a central banking reform plank to its policy agenda. It's in part due to the institution's structure that its reform efforts are likely to be ineffective at best and destructive at worse. The Fed in its current form has become unresponsive to needs of ordinary Americans. It's time to change its outdated, century-old organization and give it new tools to manage the economy. Instead of creating trillions in new money, only to have it sit idle, it should send that money straight to the American people.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.