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Rep. Frank: House will pass Ron Paul’s ‘audit the Fed’ bill this year

danarhea

danarhea

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Ron Paul has been pushing for the Fed to be audited for years, and has claimed that massive wrongdoing will be revealed under an audit of the Fed. Surprisingly, one of the most Liberal Democrats in Congress has now joined the push, and as the chairman of the Finance committee, he may be able to get it done.

Now I don't think much of Barney Franks' politics, but in my eyes, he has just hit a home run. I don't care if he is a Liberal. The Fed is out of control, and needs to be held accountable for it's reckless conduct.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and in this case, the bedfellows are particularly strange. A Liberal and a Paleoconservative Libertarian. Who would have thunk it? But as strange as it is, I am all in favor of what they are pushing for. Kudos to Ron Paul and Barney Frank for teaming up and doing the right thing. More than half the Republicans are now on board, and now it looks like enough Democrats are going to put partisanship aside and join them, and make this happen. It is times like this that I am proud to be an American.

Article is here.
 
The Fed was basically the only thing keeping us from having a fullblown depression last fall...and now Ron Paul wants to nerf their power and somehow managed to convince other congressmen to go along with it. This demonization of the Fed is ridiculous. Most people who reflexively oppose the Federal Reserve have absolutely no idea what it is or what it does.

Hopefully this dies in the Senate, or Obama vetoes it.
 
I am interested in what this "audit" and I use "audit" loosely will find. I'm not even sure how the hell you'd even audit something like the fed. What criteria would you use? How would you test the balances? Given how a financial audit works and how the fed works, this may be a giant waste of time.
 
Kandahar said:
The Fed was basically the only thing keeping us from having a fullblown depression last fall...
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How ironic, considering it was the Fed's expansionary monetary policy that fueled all the malinvestment and wreckless speculation which led to the giant asset bubble in the housing market.

...and now Ron Paul wants to nerf their power and somehow managed to convince other congressmen to go along with it.
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Nerf their power with an audit? How does that work?

This demonization of the Fed is ridiculous. Most people who reflexively oppose the Federal Reserve have absolutely no idea what it is or what it does.
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It creates bubbles in a futile attempt to manage the business cycle.

Hopefully this dies in the Senate, or Obama vetoes it.
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Yea, no need to look into those balance sheets. The FOMC has it covered.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NYBTkE1yQ"]YouTube - Alan Grayson: "Which Foreigners Got the Fed's $500,000,000,000?" Bernanke: "I Don't Know."[/ame]
 
obvious Child said:
I am interested in what this "audit" and I use "audit" loosely will find. I'm not even sure how the hell you'd even audit something like the fed. What criteria would you use? How would you test the balances? Given how a financial audit works and how the fed works, this may be a giant waste of time.
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The important questions to answer from the fed would be along the lines of : how much money has the fed created and who received that money...

One can only imagine what will be found if the fed were made to be the proper level of transparent ... (unlike 'transparent' as Bernanke might sugges, ie: so transparent as to be invisible.)
 
I can't see where its a good idea to politicize monetary policy. God help us if congress ever gets any control over it.

I am against a return to the Gold Standard, but if its between that and congress politicizing monetary policy, the Gold Standard would probably be the lesser of the two evils.
 
obvious Child said:
I am interested in what this "audit" and I use "audit" loosely will find.
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Why does it have to find anything? Can't it be just for oversight purposes? Why not do it?

I'm not even sure how the hell you'd even audit something like the fed. What criteria would you use? How would you test the balances? Given how a financial audit works and how the fed works, this may be a giant waste of time.
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I'd assume that the Fed keeps records of its financial transactions. The Congress could simply examine them. That's it.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
I can't see where its a good idea to politicize monetary policy.
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An audit does nothing to that end. The Fed will still conduct monetary policy absent "political pressure."

God help us if congress ever gets any control over it.
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Then why did the Constitution specifically delegate the authority to conduct monetary policy to the Congress?

RE: Article 1, Section 8.

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures...

LII: Constitution
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I am against a return to the Gold Standard, but if its between that and congress politicizing monetary policy, the Gold Standard would probably be the lesser of the two evils.
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Conducting oversight of monetary policy doesn't mean it will become "politicized."
 
Ethereal said:
An audit does nothing to that end. The Fed will still conduct monetary policy absent "political pressure."



Then why did the Constitution specifically delegate the authority to conduct monetary policy to the Congress?

RE: Article 1, Section 8.

Conducting oversight of monetary policy doesn't mean it will become "politicized."
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I congress starts auditing the Fed, you will see congress start to second guess every single policy decision the Fed makes. Which will indeed politicize it. The problem is that the congress will push the Fed to pursue a policy of maximized employment at the expense of inflation.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
I congress starts auditing the Fed, you will see congress start to second guess every single policy decision the Fed makes. Which will indeed politicize it. The problem is that the congress will push the Fed to pursue a policy of maximized employment at the expense of inflation.
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Don't what things politized, eh? By that logic, the USA would be better off dissolving the Congress and the Executive branch and letting the SCOUS run things.

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TOJ said:
Don't what things politized, eh? By that logic, the USA would be better off dissolving the Congress and the Executive branch and letting the SCOUS run things.

.
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Uhh he said that he didn't want the FED politicized. He said he didn't want MONETARY POLICY politicized. He didn't say anything about "things" being politicized, whatever that means. That was a pretty weak attempt at a straw man. :roll:
 
Kandahar said:
Uhh he said that he didn't want the FED politicized. He said he didn't want MONETARY POLICY politicized. He didn't say anything about "things" being politicized, whatever that means. That was a pretty weak attempt at a straw man. :roll:
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Why is monetary policy special in this regard? What exactly should be politized and what should not?

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You don't want monetary Policy to be politicised...what the hell does that even mean?
 
This is a Ron Paul idea, which should tell you it is nutty and not real bright.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
I congress starts auditing the Fed, you will see congress start to second guess every single policy decision the Fed makes. Which will indeed politicize it.
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The Fed will still retain its political autonomy; an audit does nothing to change that. Not that it matters, though, since the Constitution specifically delegates to the Congress the authority to conduct monetary policy, which makes objections to "politicizing" said policy decidedly perplexing.

The problem is that the congress will push the Fed to pursue a policy of maximized employment at the expense of inflation.
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Doesn't mean the Fed has to listen.
 
TOJ said:
Why is monetary policy special in this regard? What exactly should be politized and what should not?

.
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Monetary policy is different than many other issues, in that the average person (even the average well-educated person) has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. That includes congresspeople. It takes years of studying economics to really get a grip on monetary policy.
 
This has every potential to become a political witch hunt. Dig in the books, cook them to fade any wrong doing of one party and highlight any wrong doing of the other party. No wonder Barney wants to do it.
 
apdst said:
This has every potential to become a political witch hunt. Dig in the books, cook them to fade any wrong doing of one party and highlight any wrong doing of the other party. No wonder Barney wants to do it.
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He is balanced out on the other side by Ron Paul, who would not let him get away with it. This will be an honest audit, with both Democrats and Republicans keeping each other honest. No conspiracy theories here.
 
isnt there a conspiracy theory that JFK was assassinated for '****in' with da Fed?'
 
danarhea said:
He is balanced out on the other side by Ron Paul, who would not let him get away with it. This will be an honest audit, with both Democrats and Republicans keeping each other honest. No conspiracy theories here.
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When do these political investigations over nothing EVER involve the two parties keeping each other honest? More often than not, "keeping each other honest" usually involves one party politicizing something stupid, and the other side retaliating by politicizing something even more stupid.

A perfect example of this was the release of CIA documents, which was supposed to be a way to keep our government honest, and turned into a partisan bitch-fest with Democrats calling for investigations into the Bush Administration and Dick Cheney claiming that Obama is making our country less safe.
 
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Kandahar said:
Monetary policy is different than many other issues, in that the average person (even the average well-educated person) has absolutely no idea what they are talking about.
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I agree, but what does that have to do with an audit?

That includes congresspeople. It takes years of studying economics to really get a grip on monetary policy.
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We have specialized committees to deal with that. This one, for instance:

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Banking_Committee]United States House Committee on Financial Services - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
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