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| Bernanke Attacks Ron Paul's Audit the Fed Bill | | Print | |
| Written by Thomas R. Eddlem | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 29 November 2009 00:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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“I am concerned, however, that a number of the legislative proposals being circulated would significantly reduce the capacity of the Federal Reserve to perform its core functions,” Bernanke wrote, adding that "a House committee recently voted to repeal a 1978 provision that was intended to protect monetary policy from short-term political influence.” Ron Paul's legislation, H.R. 1207, recently passed the House Financial Services Committee, and a majority of the whole House (307 of 435) have cosponsored the overwhelmingly popular bill. The legislation would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit the Federal Reserve annually and disclose the results to the public. Bernanke opposes the audit while at the same time claiming that the Fed is adequately audited: In its making of monetary policy, the Fed is highly transparent, providing detailed minutes of policy meetings and regular testimony before Congress, among other information. Our financial statements are public and audited by an outside accounting firm; we publish our balance sheet weekly; and we provide monthly reports with extensive information on all the temporary lending facilities developed during the crisis. Congress, through the Government Accountability Office, can and does audit all parts of our operations except for the monetary policy deliberations and actions covered by the 1978 exemption. The general repeal of that exemption would serve only to increase the perceived influence of Congress on monetary policy decisions, which would undermine the confidence the public and the markets have in the Fed to act in the long-term economic interest of the nation. But earlier this year in Congressional testimony, Bernanke and other Federal Reserve auditors claimed they didn't know precisely how the Fed had added half a trillion dollars in assets (debts) to its balance sheet. The $500 billion in loans, Bernanke then told Florida Democrat Alan Grayson, were loans made to foreign central banks at the same time American businesses and homeowners were struggling to get loans. Bernanke has decried the possibility of congressmen and citizens being able to look into the books of the U.S. central bank and see transactions like the one above. “These measures are very much out of step with the global consensus on the appropriate role of central banks,” Bernanke said of the Paul bill, “and they would seriously impair the prospects for economic and financial stability in the United States.” Bernanke argues that his goal is “to design a system of financial oversight that will embody the lessons of the past two years and provide a robust framework for preventing future crises and the economic damage they cause.” But the Fed's loose monetary policy of suppressing interest rates over the 2003-07 period was the primary cause of the housing bubble/bust cycle. Even Bernanke has admitted that the Fed failed in its supposed responsibility to prevent the monetary crisis of 2008: “The Federal Reserve, like other regulators around the world, did not do all that it could have to constrain excessive risk-taking in the financial sector in the period leading up to the crisis.” But Bernanke's solution to the current crisis is to continue and even accelerate the unparalleled increase in money supply that will lead to new bubbles and dilute the value of already-existing dollars, causing prices to rise. “To support economic growth,” Bernanke noted in his column, “the Fed has cut interest rates aggressively and provided further stimulus through lending and asset-purchase programs. Our ability to take such actions without engendering sharp increases in inflation depends heavily on our credibility and independence from short-term political pressures.” The result of these rate cuts — the Federal Reserve's target interest rate is now set to zero — the Fed has more than doubled the supply of money in the last year, and the rate of increase in the money supply has been called a “hockey stick chart” by opponents of the Federal Reserve policies. Photo of Ben Bernanke: AP Images Trackback(0)
Comments (15)
PainfullyAware
said:
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Federal Reserve Open Market Committee Chairman Ben Bernanke is pulling out all the stops to kill 
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Big Bank BS Is the OpEd really written by Bernanke and not Linda Robertson the Former Enron Lobbyist hired by the Fed in July? Robbing The Populous Through Inflation Seems TO Be The Only Thing The Federal Reserve Is Good At. |
Darryl Schmitz
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Absolute Power (Secrecy) Corrupts Absolutely When I hear Bernanke or any other puppet of Wall Street and the Banking Industry talk like this, I'm reminded of that scene from The Wizard of Oz: "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" |
Boris
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first things first - Dignose this problem! Audit the Federal Reserve Bank! Expose this fraud. Facts speak for themselves. By the way, how's M3 stacking up today? I thought so. Enough of this fear-building psychological manipulation - it's not going to get worse by knowing how financially ill our Nation is. First thing is to diagnose the problem. If Fed is refusing to tell us ("No," "I can't tell you that"), than we shall find out through decent representatives such as Ron Paul. Thank you Mr. Paul. |
Ron Davidson
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Pass the bill and remove Mr. B. Lets for a moment forget about Mr. Bernanke fighting against Ron Paul's bill. Why the hell is he still the Fed chairman. Here is a man who claims he is a world class expert on the great depression. Even someone with a minimal knowledge of the depression realizes it was caused by tons of easy credit and money. Fast forward to the last 7 or 8 years and we see Greenspan and his assistant Mr. B. flooding the housing market with cheap and easy money. Mr. G and Mr. B, along with other incompentents who are still in positions of power, also removed the Glass S. act to allow banks to run wild back in the late 90's Yes, I would agree that Mr. B. is an expert in depressions but one word should be inserted before depression.....CREATING. It is amazing to me that he was an active partner in duplicating the run up to the great depression. If he is such an expert he should also realize that there was a sucker rally in 1930. This sucker rally is happening again but with a twist...Mr. B. is working it hard by again throwing gas onto the fire. Instead off stepping back and letting this mess run its course he is inflating this rally to ensure a very big and terrible second collapse. Under his incredible leadership the Fed and the U.S. government are the largest counterfeiters in the world. This counterfeit money was delivered to the various failed banks with the ink still wet and with no restrictions on its use. The banksters then did what they do best, speculate. He is totally and absolutely clueless and to call himself an expert on depressions is like a mentally retarded 5 year old saying he is brighter then Einstein. We need to get Ron Paul's bill passed but more importantly Mr. B and his band of experts have to be removed immediately before the damage is beyond repair. |
Bonnie
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... Reputable companies ENCOURAGE and advertise audits as a way to maintain integrity and instill confidence. |
Flu-Bird
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We need RON PAUL We need RON PAUL in the whitehouse in 2012 and perhaps have JOE ARPIO as our SECRATARY of STATE |
KSH
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They have zero credibility The public already has lost all confidence in the top Fed officials and the US Treasury Dept officials: all are part of the same corporations that benefit the most from the trillions in bailouts and economic policy in general. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan for starters? No more appointments to the Treasury or to the Fed Res from GS / JPM cronies at least. |
gmiller
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... Ben, if there was any remaining doubt about your incompetence and clear and present danger to our nation, you just eliminated it, with your latest words. |
MiBu
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... “These measures are very much out of step with the global consensus on the appropriate role of central banks,” Bernanke said of the Paul bill" Global consensus? Does he mean like the consensus on global warming scam? Americans are supposed to not be concerned when global banks are influencing American currency??? Isn't the Fed supposed to be an AMERICAN non-agency of the government. How are they loaning to foreign banks??? The Fed shares responsibilty for the debt and erosion of purchasing power of the US dollar which financially affects all Americans. Benanke needs to watch out he doesn't end up in jail for embezzlement. |
j
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... The US government (as we know it) has 10 years left. They're grabbing cash while the grabbing is good. End the Fed. End the State. Time for a voluntary society. Truth is freedom. |
Some Guy
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... Ben Bernanke should be remembered as the last chairman of the last unconstitutional central bank in the USA. Jefferson and Jackson had good reasons for shutting down the previous incarnations of the central counterfeiting agency. |
Davidus Romanus
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Federal Reserve is privately owned The Fed is NOT a government agency. It is privately owned by the banks. Is it any wonder that the Fed acts in the interests of the banks and not the rest of us? |
Dee
said:
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... Will Congress finally take back its Constitutional mandate to "coin money and regulate the value thereof," Article I, Sec. 8.? Congress abdicated its responsibility nearly l00 years ago when it gave away its power to the Federal Reserve. It is past time for Congress to support Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve, and thereafter to abolish it. May God save our wonderful country! [That founding father, Amschel Rothschild, declared: "Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes its laws."] |
tim
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the opposite the fed is saying the exact opposite,of what is happening, they will make a lot of do ray me for their friends in the short term. kill us with inflation and debt and great lose of personal wealth with the bursting of bubbles, does he ever utter the word bubble? this is a military tactic,akin to bate and switch.the bottom line is ...it's not what the fed says is the right thing to do, it is what the people want weather, they are right or wrong, it's what the people say. |
