If nothing happened domestically, that would be a gigantic improvement. Here's the difference between 1982/1994 and 2010. In 1982 the Fed was pushing a strong dollar policy to eliminate the great inflation of the 1970s and we were trending toward more free markets. In 1994 we were enjoying the benefits of the peace dividend from the cold war victory and total federal spending was trending down, eventually to just 19% of GDP. In both cases, a strong economy was inevitable. In 2010, the Fed is trying to turn the dollar into a third world currency and federal spending is 25% of GDP. We have followed the increasing regulation of the Bush years with the increasing regulation of the Obama years. Perhaps Obama will be lucky and 2012...

Joycey,
I think the answer to your question is that the Founding Fathers would not allow such a thing; although Jefferson and Hamilton fought over the constitutionality of having a central bank. In today's world, the Supreme Court has allowed the federal government's role expand beyond anything the Founders would recognize, so the only question is whether a central bank such as the Fed is a good or bak idea. The Fed has prover it cannot achieve its purpose of maintaining the purchasing power of the dollar. The dollar lost about 85% of its purchasing power between the Fed's founding in 1913 and the Humphrey Hawkins bill in 1978. In a free market economy, prices generally slowly decline and the currency gains purchasing power as...