Posted on 07/10/2009 9:54:14 AM PDT by mojitojoe
WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve deputy chairman Donald Kohn on Thursday defended the U.S. central bank's independence, saying congressional oversight could interfere with monetary policymaking.
If the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, were authorized to audit the Fed, that "could cast a chill on monetary policy deliberations," Kohn told a House of Representatives committee.
He acknowledged that the possibility of expanding the audit authority of the GAO over the Fed "has recently been discussed."
"Although Federal Reserve officials regularly explain the rationale for their policy decisions in public venues, the process of vetting ideas and proposals, many of which are never incorporated into policy decisions, could suffer from the threat of public disclosure," Kohn said.
He also defended the Fed's closed-door policy-setting meetings as vital for the financial markets and the public.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneynews.com ...
To me this is a really large sign that operations are not on the up and up and they need to be opened up for display.
Democrats supporting this Fed secrecy against us cant wait to report all our national security secrets to the press.
Oh no! If we actually audit the FED Congress will expose the illegitimacy of fractional reserve banking and how the FED props it up. Can’t have that.
If the fed gets audited I think they will collapse the US dollar and cause havoc in the world economy.
I doubt seriously if the Fed is saying please.
Audit them anyway.
I agree with the FED. Having Congress involved in FED policy decisions is a mistake of gargantuan porportions.
Just imagine, the FED having to adopt Global Warming monetary policy, Green Monetary policy, Gay friendly monetary policy, etc.
How long before ACORN sues the FED for not having a minority friendly monetary policy?
I bet there’s a lot of shady stuff going on.
It’s the only real reason I can think of that they are so opposed to an audit.
Let the Sun Shine In those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing!
With well over 230 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle in the House of Representatives, Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s effort to force an audit of the Federal Reserve is being led in the Senate by none other than South Carolina conservative Sen. Jim DeMint.
Last month, DeMint became the first Republican senator to support Senate Bill 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, and since then has talked extensively on radio and television about the importance of transparency with regard to the Fed. Yesterday, however, he took it a step further, attempting to attach the full text of S. 604 as an amendment to an appropriations bill, but the effort was blocked by Democratic Party leadership in the Senate, which refused to even allow a vote on the amendment.
Such a refusal was rationalized by the argument that DeMint was essentially attempting to legislate on an appropriations bill, a no-no which violates Senate Rule 16, which governs appropriations and amendments to general appropriations bills. DeMint, however, did not waver. He was prepared with a list of several other similar Government Accountability Office audits contained in the appropriations bill, rattled them off one-by-one, and pointed out that using the same argument advanced and embraced by Senate Democratic leadership moments earlier, each and every one of the GAO audits would also run afoul of Senate Rule 16.
By doing so, he forced Senate Democrats to essentially acknowledge that their objection to the amendment was not at all about procedure or Senate rules, but rather about an overt refusal to permit an audit of the organization so graciously and mysteriously assisting the elected left with the advancement of their agenda.
The Federal Reserve has failed to account for nine trillion dollars—that’s $9,000,000,000,000, or approximately $30,000 for every single living man, woman and child—but has never in its history been subject to an audit.
The American people deserve to know what’s going on, and how this opaque institution has squandered our currency and our future. I am delighted to know that Jim DeMint is spearheading this effort in the Senate, and I hope that Republicans ensure that the very same amendment is proposed alongside each and every piece of legislation possible until it is passed.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Republican Senator Jim DeMint and supporter of an audit said, “allowing the Fed to operate our nation’s monetary system in almost complete secrecy leads to abuse, inflation and a lower quality of life.”
Charles Ortel, managing director with Newport Value Partners, an independent research firm, agrees. “Transparency is the key to any market,” he says, noting the Fed doesn’t mark-to-market its assets, much of it now consisting of the worst toxic debt Wall Street had to offer.
If you do not understand why this affects you let Senator D explain it to you. I believe their is a more sinister reason like dirty durbin said frankly the banks own the place. Pretty soon the dollar will not be worth one RED cent. If you would like to add your voice to fellow citizens calling the audit please go here.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/275761/Ron-Paul-Is-Right!-We-Should-Audit-the-Fed
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5682QS20090709
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31204170
http://www.americasright.com/2009/07/demint-proposes-amendment-to-audit-fed.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWobmdjieHQ&feature=channel
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-is-obama-in-wall-streets-pocket-2009-4
Bernanke's fed is far more open than anything we had before and all we got here is just another coalition of freepers and the loony left. This can only end up with what they got us in the '08 election: a bigger shift to the left.
When? Where? Link?
infowars.com
Submitted for your consideration while standing by for FURIOUS FLAMES from the FRIENDS OF PAPER MONEY!
(I wrote this a number of years ago when things were NOT going well with the economy. Trust me: They WILL get ugly once again as man — or certain men — cannot resist playing God. We continue to violate the universal, immutable laws of economics at our great peril.)
History proves that EVERY house of cards eventually comes down. And the higher the card house, the harder the fall when it finally comes. And when it does, the more freedoms we will voluntarily surrender to “restore order.” It was the Founders’ concern about this historically valid problem which prompted their attempt — now ignored — to keep American “money” sound and honest.)
And I certainly recognize that NO system of commodity backed paper “money” is foolproof (and we now seem to be led by some of history’s biggest fools) how’s the current UNBACKED system working out for you?
Dick Bachert 1998
***************
2009 UPDATE:
I have noted with interest that I have lately been getting far, far fewer flames from the paper money lovers out there. And when, over 2 years ago, I began ranting about the incredibly stupid financial devices (derivatives, mortgage backed securities, etc.) being created to hoodwink the greater fools out there who were snapping up these things, I could count on about half the responders to tell me I was too simple-minded to understand these highly complicated financial “products.” I guess all those really bright financial guys are too busy now washing car windows at traffic lights to post here.
And I’d ask you to consider that when gold and silver come up in the news, the talking heads fall into the old, establishment fostered trap of measuring the precious metals in the rapidly failing paper when they SHOULD remark that it is the metals that are – within the narrow confines of fluctuations caused by their uses as industrial commodities – holding THEIR value and it is the paper that is INFLATING. (The classic example is that around 1900, one could buy a fine man’s suit for one ounce of gold. YOU STILL CAN!!!)
A fiat money system of the sort we are now painfully watching collapse creates a FALSE world of FALSE feelings of well-being and elevated lifestyles. During the expansion phase of such a system, those living under it spend or borrow more than they should, have more children than they can afford and, at the national level, come to believe they can afford to allow a score of millions of illegals to come here for educations, welfare payments, medical care, etc. They reject the immutable and universal economic realities and embrace what my old friend, the late Tupper Saussy, called “the IDEASPHERE.”
Now that the inevitable economic catastrophe is upon us, how much fun is it to watch the idiots in congress who triggered this thing scramble for cover by blaming everyone else? Not much!
The only folks who feel good now are the Hank Paulsons and Obamaites of the world who are in the process of conducting what may prove to be one of the largest raids on the REAL wealth of this nation – our labor and real property – ever witnessed.
And I’ll readily concede that while a precious metals backed money system ain’t perfect, ASK YOURSELF HOW THE FIAT MONEY SYSTEM NOW COLLAPSING ALL AROUND US HAS BEEN WORKING FOR YA’?
“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; if it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” — Judge Learned Hand, 1944
DB 3/2009
* * * * * * * *
The Forgotten History of Money
This is the fascinating story of the efforts by certain of the Founding Fathers to prevent the economic distress we find all about us today. It is also a sad story on the basis that modern, “sophisticated” Americans have abandoned the corrective institutional mechanism that remains in place to this day. As you read it, think about a world with many fewer S&L, banking and political scandals and economic problems now considered the norm.
“Blood running in the streets. Mobs of rioters and demonstrators threatening banks and legislatures. Looting of shop and home. Strikes and unemployment. Trade and distribution paralyzed. Shortages of food. Bankruptcies everywhere. Court dockets overloaded. Kidnappings for heavy ransom. Sexual perversion, drunkenness, lawlessness rampant. The wheels of government are clogged, and we are descending into the vale of confusion and darkness. No day was ever more clouded than the present. We are fast verging on anarchy and confusion. (George Washington in a 1786 letter to James Madison, describing the effects of fiat paper money inflation then ravaging America in the pre Constitutional period.)
“The annihilation (of the paper money) was so complete that barber shops were papered in jest with the bills; and sailors, on returning from cruises, being paid off in bundles of this worthless money, had suits made of it, and with characteristic lightheartedness, turned their loss into frolic by parading through the streets in decayed finery which in its better days had passed for thousands of dollars.” (Contemporary writer, Breck, 1786)
“Paper money polluted the equity of our laws, turned them into engines of oppression, corrupted the justice of our public administration, destroyed the fortunes of thousands who had confidence in it, enervated the trade and husbandry, and the manufactures of our country, and went far to destroy the morality of out people.” (Peletiah Webster, 1786)
At the drafting of the U.S.Constitution, there were many “Friends of Paper Money” present. On August 16, 1787, when the discussion arose on Article 1, Section 8, the proposed wording was this: “The Legislature of the United States shall have the power to...coin money...and emit bills of credit of the United States.”
A hot argument ensued on the power to emit bills of credit, which is another way of saying “printing paper money”.
Here are the actual words James Madison wrote describing the debate in his diary: “Mr.G.Morris moved to strike out *and emit bills of credit.* If the United States had credit, such bills would be unnecessary; if they had not, unjust and useless.
MADISON: Will it not be sufficient to prohibit the making them a tender? This will remove the temptation to emit them with unjust views. And promissory notes in that shape may in some emergencies be best.
MORRIS: Striking out the words will leave room still for notes of a responsible minister which will do the good without the mischief. The monied interest will oppose the plan of the Government, if paper emissions be not prohibited.
COL.MASON: Though he had a mortal hatred to paper money, yet as he could not foresee all emergencies, we was unwilling to tie the hands of the Legislature [Legislature = Congress].
MR.MERCER:(A friend to paper money) It was impolitic...to excite the opposition of all those who were friends to paper money.
MR. ELSEWORTH thought this was a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the various experiments which had been made, were now fresh in the public mind and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America. By withholding the power from the new Government, more friends of influence would be gained to it than by almost anything else...Give the Government credit, and other will offer. The power may do harm, never good.
MR.WILSON: It will have a most salutary influence on the credit of the United States to remove the possibility of paper money. This expedient can never succeed whilst its mischiefs are remembered, and as long as it can be resorted to, it will be a bar to other resources.
MR.READ thought the words, if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelation.
MR.LANGDON had rather reject the whole plan than retain the three words *and emit bills*”.
The motion for striking out carried.
Historian George Bancroft later wrote: “James Madison left his testimony that *the pretext for a paper currency, and particularly for making the bills a tender, either for public or private debts, was cut off.* This is the interpretation of the clause, made at the time of its adoption by all the statesmen of that age, not open to dispute because too clear for argument, and never disputed so long as any one man who took part in framing the constitution remained alive.”
(Bancroft – founder of the U.S.Naval Academy at Annapolis among other accomplishments – wrote a book on this very subject entitled “A Plea for the Constitution of the United States: Wounded in the House of Its Guardians.” During WWII, FDR – a serious friend of paper money – ostensibly to supply the war effort, ordered the printing plates for many historical books smelted. Bancroft’s book was among them. A photocopy of one of the remaining originals can be found here
ROGER SHERMAN(1721 1793)should be a name familiar to every American. As familiar as Washington, Madison, Jefferson and Adams. He is the only man to have signed all 4 documents surrounding the formation of the United States of America: The Continental Association of 1774, The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation and The United States Constitution. He was a Judge of the Superior Court in New Haven, Connecticut, serving that office with distinction from 1766 until 1788. He served as Treasurer of Yale University from 1765 to 1776. He was renouned for his high intelligence and unswerving honesty and was described by John Adams “as honest as an angel and as
firm in the cause of American independence as Mount Atlas.” He served in the U.S.Senate from 1791 until his death in 1793.
Why is Roger Sherman*s name unfamiliar? HE WAS AN ENEMY OF PAPER MONEY!! In 1751, Roger Sherman and his brother William sued James Battle for paying a debt to their shop in New Milford, Connecticut, in depreciating paper currency. Over a period of 15 months, Battle had charged “divers wares and merchandizes” amounting to 129 pounds of what
Sherman assumed were pounds of Connecticut “Old Tenor”, a stable currency whose value were well preserved by taxation taking it out of circulation. But Battle assumed the debt was denominated in pounds of ever depreciating Rhode Island currency, tendered in same, and the Shermans took a beating in the payment and sued for recovery of loss by depreciation. The Shermans lost when Battle argued that he was merely following the accepted custom of the day. In 1752, Sherman wrote his book “A Caveat Against Injustice or An Inquiry into the Evils of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange” indicting UNBACKED PAPER MONEY.
It was this experience that Sherman brought to the Constitutional Convention and prompted him to rise on August 28,1787 and propose new, more restrictive wording to Article 1,Section 10. The standing version under consideration was worded this way: “No state shall coin money; nor grant letters of marque and reprisal; nor enter into any Treaty, alliance, or confederation; nor grant any title of Nobility.” (From Madison’s Notes of the Convention) “Judge Sherman and Mr. Wilson moved to insert the words *coin money* the words *nor emit bills of credit, nor make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts* making these prohibitions absolute, instead of making the measures allowable with the consent of the Legislature of the U.S. Mr. Sherman thought this a FAVORABLE CRISIS FOR CRUSHING PAPER MONEY. If the consent of the Legislature could authorize emissions of it, the friends of paper money would make every exertion to get into the Legislature in order to license it.” Mr. Sherman*s and Mr. Wilson*s motion was quickly agreed to and became the supreme law of the land.
Some additional quotations to ponder:
“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from a want of honor or virtue so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation” (John Adams in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1787)
“I deny the power of the general government to making paper money, or anything else, a legal tender.” (Thomas Jefferson)
“You have been doubtless been informed, from time to time, of the happy progress of our affairs. The principal difficulties seem in great measure to have been surmounted. Our revenues have been considerably
more productive than it was imagined they would be. I mention this to show the spirit of enterprise that prevails.” (George Washington in a letter to the Marquis de LaFayette, June 3, 1790 AFTER the United States Constitution prohibited unbacked paper money at Article 1, Section 10)
“Since the federal constitution has removed all danger of our having a paper tender, our trade is advanced fifty percent. Our monied people can trust their cash abroad, and have brought their coin into circulation.” (December 16, 1789 edition of The Pennsylvania
Gazette)
“Our country, my dear sir, is fast progressing in its political importance and social happiness.” (George Washington in a letter to the Marquis de LaFayette, March 19, 1791)
“The United States enjoys a sense of prosperity and tranquility under the new government that could hardly have been hoped for.” (George Washington in a letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham, July 19,1791)
“Tranquility reigns among the people with that disposition towards the general government which is likely to preserve it. Our public credit stands on that high ground which three years ago would have been
considered as a species of madness to have foretold.” (George Washington in a letter to David Humphreys, July 20, 1791)
“It is apparent from the whole context of the Constitution as well as the times which gave birth to it, that it was the purpose of the Convention to establish a currency consisting of the precious metals.
These were adopted by a permanent rule excluding the use of a perishable medium of exchange, such as certain agricultural commodities recognized by the statutes of some States as tender for debts, or the still more pernicious expedient of PAPER CURRENCY.” (Andrew Jackson, 8th Annual Message to Congress, December 5, 1836)
DESPITE WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT IN SCHOOL, THE HISTORICAL RECORD IS CRYSTAL CLEAR: AMERICA WAS TO HAVE BEEN SPARED THE DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF AN UNBACKED PAPER MONEY SYSTEM. MOST OF THE PROBLEMS WE FACE TODAY CAN BE TRACED TO WHAT ANDREW JACKSON CALLED “THE PERNICIOUS EXPEDIENT OF PAPER MONEY”.
HISTORY TEACHES THAT AN “ARTIFICIAL” MONEY CREATES AN “ARTIFICIAL” WORLD WHERE THE PRICE FOR SOME ITEM...EVEN OUR MOST POPULAR WELFARE “PROGRAM”...CAN BE DEFERRED TO FUTURE GENERATIONS (OUR $11 TRILLION
NATIONAL DEBT) OR PAID WITH A “MONEY” CREATED OUT OF THIN AIR WHICH ROBS THE VALUE FROM THE MONEY WE MIGHT BE UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE IN OUR POCKETS AT THAT MOMENT (INFLATION). AND ONE THING YOU MUST REMEMBER ABOUT INFLATION IS THAT IT IS NOT AN “EQUAL OPPORTUNITY” DESTROYER: THOSE FIRST IN LINE TO GET THEIR HANDS ON THE NEW MONEY ROLLING OFF THE PRESSES (THE MODERN FRIENDS OF PAPER MONEY) HAVE A CHANCE TO SPEND IT BEFORE IT LOSES ITS VALUE. THE LITTLE PEOPLE (THAT’S US, FOLKS!) FARTHEST DOWN THE LINE ARE THE ONES WHO FEEL THE FULLEST EFFECTS OF THIS DESTRUCTIVE PROCESS.
tinfoil?
Black Hell-e-copters?
Kidding
OK, I am listening to Alex Jones right now.
I think he has some points about world monetary policy, but the biggest conspiracy of all is the “conspiracy of incompetence”.
I don’t like his stance on 9-11 and the fact he is a “9-11 truther” I’d say Alex is right on things about 40% of the time. The rest of his stuff is too much of a black helicopter X-files love fest.
Did you read the story on bloomberg about the world currency?
Excellent! Thank you and I agree.
Please post a link I can’t seem to find it.
I do believe that a world currency would be a disaster for freedom in the world.
I don’t like his stance on 9-11 and the fact he is a “9-11 truther”
_____________
Neither do I. When someone believes that, they begin to lose me and I have to take everything else they say with a grain of salt. I do believe that the Federal Reserve is the most corrupt organization on earth with our present administration running a close second.
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