Posted on 09/25/2009 10:45:34 AM PDT by Palin Republic
House lawmakers want to pry open the books of the famously secretive Federal Reserve with legislation that would subject the central bank to a sweeping congressional audit.
The effort is overwhelmingly bipartisan. Hardline conservatives and liberal Democrats have banded together in their criticism of the Fed as a major power broker in the financial system that doesn't answer to Congress.
Friday's debate comes as lawmakers consider a proposal by President Barack Obama that would give the Fed new powers to prevent another economic crisis.
"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," said Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat.
The Fed is pushing back, warning that its ability to stabilize prices and monitor interest rates would be compromised if it knew politicians were looking over its shoulder.
The House proposal would "cause the markets and the to public to lose confidence in the independence and the judgments of the Federal Reserve," Scott Alvarez, the board's top lawyer, told the House Financial Services Committee in testimony.
The legislation is championed by Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican whose extreme libertarian bent usually doesn't generate consensus in Congress. But as of Friday, Paul's legislation had attracted 295 co-sponsors with a range of political philosophies, including Hawaii liberal Rep. Neil Abercrombie and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, an outspoken conservative from Texas.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Who taught me you couldn't understand? You, on this thread.
What do the shares get them?
Please explain the difference between the interest the government owes on $1 billion of fiat debt and the interest the government owes on $1 billion of gold debt.
As somebody that's been intimately abused by Sarbanes/Oxley part 404 (AKA "the full employment for useless consultants act of 2002") in the IT industry for the last several years, I can offer many stories of wasted time and money over that time. SOX only "solved" the problem of too many American companies being too productive, and it fixed that with plenty of wasted man-hours and consulting fees, and endless paper-acres of documentation of things that nobody will ever read.
But beyond that, the Federal Reserve together with each of it's regional banks is already audited every year by an outside accounting firm (lately: Deloitte Touche) and the opinions and reports, with notes, are posted online for anybody to look at. I've looked at them. I still haven't heard from anybody what some other audit is supposed to reveal that their annual audit doesn't.
How does the Fed do that? How does the Fed get money to flow to the 1st National Bank of FR?
Please run thru the steps, if you can.
You show up on nearly every thread discussing the audit. I have read most all of your bs reasons why we shouldn't audit the fed. Yea, I know you have claimed to have made money thanks to the fed. Well you are to be congratulated. But I lost half of my money in supposedly safe risk investments, and I want to see what is behind the iron curtain. Not everyone is as good as you. Some of us still have to make a living elsewhere relying on others to protect our investments. We all don't have the luxury and the knowledge you claim to have.
How bout this. If you are the brilliant investor you have claimed to be, how bout sharing with us all how we can recover our losses in quick order?
I don't remember claiming that. Are you sure?
But I lost half of my money in supposedly safe risk investments,
What is a safe risk investment?
I want to see what is behind the iron curtain.
If you get to see it, I'm sure you'll be disappointed.
We all don't have the luxury and the knowledge you claim to have.
Some of you are willing to learn and don't believe every stupid thing you see on a silly website or what you hear from an idiot Congressman.
If you are the brilliant investor you have claimed to be,
I don't remember claiming that. Are you sure?
how bout sharing with us all how we can recover our losses in quick order?
You need to buy at the bottom of the cycle and sell at the top.
Yes I am sure. Are you denying?
I think you just made that up.
It has the power of a government agency without the responsibilities. It not being part of the government is a technicality given the power and authority it has.
It is part of the government, it just isn’t officially part of the government. Or you could also say that the federal reserve program is a government program which comes to exactly the same result of it being an arm of the government. Its like if some dude out in Kansas was being given trillions of dollars to save our whole existence from demons and no one was allowed to check on whether or not he was spending the money coming up with special effects.
It is identical to having a bunch of government stooges behind closed doors spending trillions with no oversight. Same exact thing.
So far so good. JPMorgan Chase, for instance, has $1 billion in T-Bills paying 0.2% and the Fed buys them. Now JPMC has $1 billion in cash, paying 0%, in their account at the Fed.
3. That money is deposited into a bank, adding it to our money supply. The 1st National Bank of FR may get it, or it may not.
It's already in the JPMC account at the Fed. So the FR bank gets nothing. And how does JPMC benefit from having to sell their bills to the Fed? I think they'd prefer the T-Bills.
4. If the 1st National Bank of FR got it, it can now create credit money up to 90% of that deposit as loans and collect interest on it.
JPMC could have sold their bills if they wanted to make a loan, they bought bonds instead.
Forgive me if I missed something, I am still learning.
You're doing okay so far.
Buy low, sell high.
The Federal Reserve doesn't spend trillions.
Part of its job is to expand or contract the money supply. Expanding the money supply is spending money.
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