1913 -- America turns control of the money system over to a private central bank. Great idea? If I might digress from the burning issue of the day, sex practices of the rich and powerful, or, is it Democrat Graft? Either way, when the Fed was chartered, 1913, the idea sold was that a central authority would counteract the "chaos," as it was termed, of the free banking system.  The Fed could regulate money, turn it up or down, and smooth out those pesky downturns. The great patriarchs like Rockefeller and Morgan were to be in charge. After all,  weren't these the same who guided America through the great achievements of the 1880's, the Gilded Age? They love us. They will take care of us. Won't they?   Once contrary opinions went down with the Titanic, it was game on.  The game? Can we just call it five card stud?    Anyway, the purpose of this post is to ask about zero interest rates.  Couldn't zero interest just be another strategy to enable loans to people who otherwise would not be able to make the payments? Just a thought. What's up with zero interest, and why does our economy seem to depend on it?