Around 20 people gathered for an anti-Federal Reserve rally Saturday afternoon on the Boston Common and marched to the Federal Reserve Bank Building in an effort to demand an audit of the institution.
The rally, Boston Audit the Fed, was organized by the University of Massachusetts Boston chapter of the Young Americans for Liberty.
The rally began with a chant of “Audit the Fed,” which the group repeated as they marched to the Federal Reserve Bank Building. Once at their destination, speakers addressed the small group through bullhorns and shouted their slogan “Audit the Fed” at the Federal Reserve Bank Building.
Founded in 1913, the Federal Reserve System is responsible for regulating and monitoring currency and financial institutions in the United States, according to the official website for the Federal Reserve.
Marcelo Guadiana, the president of the UMass Boston YAL chapter, said before the rally it was organized because the Federal Reserve does not provide enough transparency about its actions.
“The Federal Reserve needs more transparency, more accountability and more oversight,” Guadiana said. “There is very little, and it is the private U.S. Central Bank, so they obviously do have a lot of power.”
Guadiana said the Federal Reserve creates income inequality and an unstable economy through increasing inflation by manufacturing money.
“They have printed a lot of money which has of course led to an inflation; the dollar has lost 95 percent of its value, and has also created booms and busts which create a very unstable economy,” Guadiana said. “When you have inflation it in effect causes prices to go up, which really hurts consumers, especially the poor and middle-class who can’t really afford these basic necessities like groceries and gas.”
New Hampshire State Rep. Brandon Phinney, a speaker at the rally, said in an interview with The Daily Free Press that the Federal Reserve is “an unconstitutional agency.”
“Crony capitalism has affected us for so long, but we’re so accustomed to it now, that we don’t see any point in changing it,” Phinney said. “Money is the most important aspect of how we live in a capitalist society, and when small private corporations are controlling interest rates and inflation and how much cash flow is out there it diminishes our dollar value.”
Carla Gericke, the former president of the Free State Project, said during the rally people should use cryptocurrency, an alternative form of currency like Bitcoin, to boycott the Federal Reserve until it agrees to an audit or the entire institution has been removed.
Gericke said the government should not be trusted as it tricks people to get what it wants.
“The Fed says, and the government says ‘Hey, just trust us, trust us, we’ll make your money good, we’re not going to deflate it by 97 percent over a hundred years,’” Gericke said. “We all know that they are not trustworthy.”
Several people at the rally said an audit of the Federal Reserve is necessary.
Aubrey Kenderdine, 21, of Fenway, the president of the YAL chapter at Northeastern University, said the Federal Reserve has free reign to do what it wants.
“[The Federal Reserve] is like a private institution that runs parallel to the government, but it really doesn’t have any restrictions on it so it can basically do whatever it wants,” Kenderdine said.
John Medlar, 23, a student at Fitchburg State University, is an organizer and spokesperson for the Boston Free Speech Coalition, the organization responsible for the Free Speech Rally protested by thousands Aug. 19.
Medlar said he came because of his longstanding interest in auditing the Federal Reserve.
“Transparency in government is absolutely important to have a well-informed and knowledgeable citizenry,” Medlar said.
Nafisa Kabir, 19, of Fenway, the media coordinator for the Northeastern YAL chapter, said it is a “civil duty” to be aware of what organizations like the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government are doing.
“[An audit] is just one step in a lot of steps we need to take to reiterate the fine line between state and federal rights,” Kabir said. “The next step will be moving the government down to a smaller size, and letting the government return to being for, by and of the people.”
The Fed is breaking the Act which created it. See my lawsuit.