Role of Federal Reserve and How it Oversteps the Biblical Principles.

In the United States, there have been numerous conflicts between religious principles and existing government principles. Christians in America have for a long time had a negative thought about how the government principles are going against their morals as id directed in the bible (Booth, 2017). There has been a lot of criticism by Christians on how economic agencies in government manage their role in line with the teachings of the Bible. The paper, therefore, seeks to discover the role of the Federal Reserve in the United States and how it ignores the principles of the Bible.

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The financial institution with the most influence in the world is the Federal Reserve of America that was established through the United States Congress in 1913 to ensure effective management of the country's funds and as well provided a flexible monetary system (Booth, 2017). Having been started on a federal system, there is a central government agency located in Washington D.C. that belongs to the Federal Reserve. It also has 12 other Federal Reserve banks in different regions of the United States all of which have jurisdiction in their assigned areas. The decisions made by the Federal reserve are independent decisions that do not need any approval by the president or government officials in the United States Government (Brown, 2017). However, congress is responsible for the oversight of the Federal Reserve's functions, and therefore, despite it being independent, they are kept in line with the financial and economic governance framework functions.

The functions of the Federal reserve are providing and maintaining payment systems, conducting monetary policy as well as the supervision of bank operations (Brown,2017). The major roles of the Federal Reserve include maintaining stable prices in the country and ensuring maximum employment. The most important function of the Federal reserve is to trade securities on behalf of the United States government. Discounts rates and adjustments to the Federal Reserve requirements are the other instruments used by the Federal government. Other banks in the country are required to set aside some money which should help maintain the Federal Reserve (Brown, 2017).

The stability of the United States economy is a major responsibility of the Federal Reserve. As was witnessed in the previous economic crisis in the United States, the Federal Reserve saw as other banks used up their reserve money and ended up loan to individuals who are not creditworthy and who do not have the ability to pay it back (Flannery et al., 2014). They also watched as the other banks increased the interest rates on loans without really having much to do or say about it despite both of these to factors being within its functions. The Federal reserve had prior knowledge of what this would do to the country economic wise but still let it happen (Flannery et al., 2014). It goes against the Biblical teachings for an individual or a firm to be careless and irresponsible to its functions and duties at large.

The United States' economic policies governing the country are also greatly questioned by the Bible (Brown, 2017). The questions come from legal standards that include measures and weights, multiple debts as well as monetary debasement. In line with the Bible, no one should interfere with weights and measures. It is addressed In the book of Leviticus 19:36 that measures and weights should not be interfered with. As depicted in Exodus 22:26, Multiple indebtedness is also considered wrong. All the above-stated principles of the Bible are tampered with by the economic principles of the United States (Flannery et al., 2014). The Federal Reserve is a privately owned monopoly that has been licensed by the government. The single duty that the government holds against the Federal Reserve is appointing members of the board. The bank as well does not allow governmental organizations that conduct accounting functions to analyze and evaluate its activities. It is therefore easy for the bank to commit fraud without anyone noticing since no other party has jurisdiction over the functions, they perform but for themselves. It, therefore, goes against the principles of the Bible and ethical issues owing to that fact (Flannery et al., 2014). Being a private entity, an immense power has been given to the Federal Reserve bank. In 2008, there was a great financial crisis that took place in the United States. Without anyone keeping them in check, banks went against the ethics and principles in the Bible and thus the financial crisis.

The rights of a country's citizens need to be safeguarded by the government and they should be working in line with the ethical and moral laws that are available in the country. However, the citizens' rights are not safeguarded with some of the policies that have been set by the government. There are however government agencies which in turn have the power to oppress the citizens. Most of these policies do not go in line with Biblical teachings and therefore, the government's inability to observe teachings of the Bile in the development of its policies has tremendously contributed to the current issues in the country's economy and therefore, using the moral guide of the Bible, the government should solve this economic issues for the betterment of the country.

References

Booth, D. D. (2017). Fed Up: An insider's take on why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America. Penguin.

https://librarycatalog.cityofwoodland.org/Record/.b24653135Conti-Brown, P. (2017). The power and independence of the Federal Reserve. Princeton University Press.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178387/the-power-and-independence-of-the-federal-reserveFlannery, M., Hirtle, B., & Kovner, A. (2017). Evaluating the information in the federal reserve stress tests. Journal of Financial Intermediation, 29, 1-18. https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeejfinin/v_3a29_3ay_3a2017_3ai_3ac_3ap_3a1-18.htm