Posted by Tina
Legislation is being proposed in the House by Rep Ron Paul that would call for an audit of the books at the Federal Reserve. One California Democrat, Brad Sherman had this to say about the proposal’s purpose, “Nobody in my district thinks that the Fed has done such a wonderful job of running the economy that we should continue to cloak them with secrecy for the purpose of protecting them from second-guessing criticism.” According to the AP story linked below the concern centers around the Feds protected status in light of it’s huge balance sheet, “Most alarming to lawmakers is the Fed’s $2 trillion balance sheet after invoking emergency powers during last year’s market crisis to lend money to companies outside the financial sector and buy up mounds of short-term commercial debt.”
“House lawmakers push for sweeping Fed audit,” by Anne Flaherty – AP, The Washington Times
You might also enjoy the following regarding the Fed:
“Should We Abolish the Federal Reserve?” by Jennifer Schonberger – Motleyfool
Thomas E. Woods, Jr. – Testimony in Support of HR 1207, The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009
On November 10, 2008, Bloomberg News ran the following headline: “Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose.” The story pointed out that the Fed was refusing to identify the recipients of trillions of dollars in emergency loans or the dubious assets the central bank was accepting as collateral. When the initial $700 billion congressional bailout was being debated last September, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson couldn’t emphasize their commitment to transparency strongly enough. But “two months later, as the Fed [lent] far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans [had] no idea where their money [was] going or what securities the banks [were] pledging in return.”
$1.2 Trillion Slush Fund: Congressman Alan Grayson Grills Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn