Will Ron Paul get his audit of the Federal Reserve?
The U.S. House has just approved it. Now it’s up to the Senate. That the proposal has gotten this far is a credit to Congressman Paul’s determination to give Americans a better idea of how their money is being misspent.
The central bank’s actions are often secret. During the 2008 bailouts, the Fed concealed which banks were getting how much of the trillions it doled out. We now have specific info — for example, $86 billion to a Bank of America that at the time touted its stability — mostly because Bloomberg LLC sued in court.
Fed defenders can be transparent about this government agency’s need for opacity. Isn’t it better, some burble, to let the Fed help dupe depositors at troubled banks about the condition of those banks so that depositors will be less likely to rescue their money? (I paraphrase.)
Some Fed champions declare that the Fed must not be “politicized” by any audit or other check on its abuses. Fine, fine, let’s stop the politicization right now. Privatize the money system, return to a gold standard, shutter the Fed and — oh, that’s not what they mean? They just want the Fed’s politically constituted and politically maneuvering officers to be able to fiscally frolic at will, a process that could be hindered if citizens knew in high-dpi detail what it’s up to?
Oops. Okay. Now I understand.…
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Forward the Fed Audit”
Banks want you to loan them your money (i.e. account deposits) without disclosing how much they owe the Fed. But try keeping your indebtedness a secret and see if a bank will loan you any money!
Good column, Paul. It’s going to be hard for senators to deny Audit in this election year. Of course, it’s all in the ‘who’ and the ‘how’ of the job.
Evil cannot stand the light of day.
Paul deserves credit for his non-confrontational approach selling freedom, that eventually has broken down barriers that statists in the RINO party have put up to stop him. They are learning (thanks to Tea Party victories in Republican primaries) their barriers are hurting them more than helping.
They may learn their days are numbered if they don’t start supporting libertarian ideas promoting more freedom (and responsibility with goes with it) rather than more government.
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