$4.4 trillion that could have gone to charity
For individuals, cash is a scarce commodity. I have to earn it by working, and only get to keep what is left over after taxes are taken out from the federal government, state government, and local government. For central banks, cash is an infinite resource that can be created and distributed at the will of a small group of people. The Federal Reserve balance currently stands at well over 4 trillion dollars. Four trillion that was created without work, by simply deciding to create it and spend it on various assets. Theoretically, there are laws that specify where that created money can be spent, but those laws have been bent and broken since 2008 to support failed hedge funds, failed insurance companies, failed banks, failed brokerages, failed mortgages, and more. Really, there are no apparent limits.
I am all for charities, and I am willing to donate material goods and time to certain causes, but it makes no sense to donate something that is infinite, but made artificially scarce for me. Looking at the balance sheets of central banks around the world, you get a sense of what is important. For the Bank of Israel, it's Apple stock. For the Bank of Japan, it's Japanese treasury bonds and stock ETFs. For the Bank of England, it's corporate bonds, and for the Federal Reserve, it's mortgages and treasury bonds. They could just as easily have credited the bank accounts of charities.
Future solicitations I get for cash donations from a charity I will refer to the Federal Reserve for a portion of their divine trillions of cash from the void.
