Money is a complex subject. We can't explain it all here. The same is true of the Federal Reserve System. Its origin, and the question of whether it's privately or publicly owned, is controversial. (Some have said that the Federal Reserve is as "federal" as Federal Express.) But we do know that the size of government has exploded, and the value of the dollar has imploded, since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.

All adults know that prices on most things have risen steadily over their lifetimes. An increased number of dollars chasing the same number of goods causes prices to rise. The number of dollars circulating rises because the Fed can create new dollars out of thin air to fund increased government.

This represents a transfer of wealth from you to the people who receive those new dollars from the government. Recipients of money from the federal government get to spend the new dollars before the increase in the money supply is reflected in the prices we pay.

You pay the higher prices, but the early recipients of the new money from the government do not. The prices you pay rise first, while your pay lags behind. And the worth of your savings declines as the money supply rises.

Monetary inflation is a tricky way for politicians to get you to pay for increased government without you knowing about it.

Monetary inflation also harms the economy by motivating investors and entrepreneurs to focus their efforts on "hard assets" like precious minerals, instead of job-producing innovation and production. The only people who benefit from monetary inflation are the politicians (by having more government favors to distribute), and those who receive what Big Government spends, such as corporate welfare clients.

By not reporting M3 the Fed is telling us they're going to give us much more inflation. If the Fed doesn't want us to know how many dollars there are, how valuable can the dollar really be?

The Fed claims M3 tell us nothing more than M2, a narrower measure they also publish. But M3 has risen nearly twice as fast as M2 over the past year. The Fed makes the silly claim that M3 isn't worth the cost to study and publish, as if the cost of compiling statistics was the cause of our fiscal woes. M3 is in fact the one statistic foreign bankers rely on most. Who will invest in America if they don't trust our money?

The Fed must continue publishing M3. Downsize DC will continue fighting the root causes of inflation, which lie in Big Government, deficits, and the Federal Reserve System itself. Nothing will cure inflation like Downsizing DC. In the meantime, we must prevent the Fed from hiding its legal counterfeiting. M3 gives us bad news, but not knowing M3 could be fatal.

This is urgent... The Fed plans to stop publishing M3 on March 23. Please use the form below to tell Congress to pass H.R. 4892, the Sunshine in Monetary Policy Act. This bill will make the Fed publish M3.

CLICK HERE TO PETITION CONGRESS