17 Aug 2010

Comment of the Quarter: George Selgin

Federal Reserve, Humor 10 Comments

I was checking out my Mises email folder and came across this blog comment from George Selgin on a past article:

Could everyone please, I mean PLEASE, stop writing FED? It isn’t an acronym, for goodness sake–it doesn’t stand for Fiat Emitting Disaster or something like that. It’s just an abbreviation of Federal. Got that?

Thanks for your attention. And oh yes: nice article, Bob.

Seriously, I have wondered about that too. I think Gary North always writes “FED.” What is the deal? Is it like “teh”?

10 Responses to “Comment of the Quarter: George Selgin”

  1. Sean A says:
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    I like it: Fiat Emitting Disaster; from now on it will be this acronym.

    As for why it’s called the Fed; probably extending from CNBC or something. Perhaps it has something to do with it being the most impersonal and centralized institution that has “Federal” attached to it. For example, when the FBI acts, we can say “here come the Feds” and if we are in the area affected, we may even see the individual parasites in action. As for the Federal Reserve, when it acts we may or may not here about “it” but we can’t see their concrete actions and the immediate results.
    Perhaps contrived but I’ve got nothing else
    End the FED

  2. Evan says:
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    Frags Economy Daily
    Forget Ever Deflating
    Fashions Endless Dollars
    Forgives Every Debtor
    Fedaral Engine of Destruction

    OK, I’m done

    • Evan says:
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      *FedEral

  3. Jonathan M. F. Catalán says:
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    Yes, but conceding to Selgin is conceding to the free bankers. Just like conceding that not everyone in the bureaucracy is out to destroy civilization is conceding to the state. Libertarians must stand dogmatically by even the silliest beliefs! [/sarcasm]

  4. KP says:
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    Is this over “fed” or “FED”? I understand the problem with the latter, the former seems fine though.

  5. Dan says:
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    Maybe they are typing FED in the same manner as his PLEASE.

    • Jeremy says:
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      Caps denote yelling, so it makes sense. Don’t most of you feel like screaming when talking about the Fed?

  6. Lucas M. Engelhardt says:
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    This is one that bothers me, too. I have no idea where people get the idea that the whole thing should be capitalized.

  7. J Cortez says:
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    George Selgin rocks. 🙂

  8. Impairment says:
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    Maybe it should be called “the institution which must not be named”, anyway.