Federal Reserve...

[SubGod22]

Federal Reserve Cannot Account for $9 Trillion :banghead:

[SB Shock]

Re: Federal Reserve...

Federal Reserve Cannot Account for $9 Trillion :banghead:

I just checked my checking account and they didn't put any of it there.

[RoyalShock]

Re: Federal Reserve...

Federal Reserve Cannot Account for $9 Trillion :banghead:

I just checked my checking account and they didn't put any of it there.

Unless H.R. 1207 passes (authored by Ron Paul with 149 co-sponsors), we'll never know and they'll never be held accountable.

[SubGod22]

Mr. Popular? Ron Paul Wins Supporters to Fed Sunshine Bill

[SubGod22]

The Expanding Fed Role

Why is it that those who specialize in individual athletic events hold almost all the records as contrasted with those who compete in the same events as part of a pentathlon? Like the athlete who tries to do everything (or at least five things), the Federal Reserve (the U.S. central bank) is becoming less competent as the number of its functions increases.

The Fed is supposed to provide the United States with stable currency yet it now takes $21.60 to equal the purchasing power of $1 in 1913, the year the Fed was established. (In the 124 years prior to the founding of the Fed, there was almost no permanent change in the purchasing power of the dollar. There was some inflation during the Civil War, which was offset by a slow deflation in the 40 years after the war.)

[SubGod22]

Ron Paul's Effort to Clip Fed's Wings Gains Support

A proposal from a long-time congressional foe of the Federal Reserve that could give lawmakers sway over monetary policy has won the support of a majority in the House of Representatives, alarming officials at the U.S. central bank.

The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, put forward by Republican Representative Ron Paul of Texas, now has 250 co-sponsors in the House. It will get air-time on Thursday during a congressional hearing on Fed independence that will feature testimony from the Fed's No. 2 official, Donald Kohn.

[SubGod22]

Senate Blocks Bid to Audit Federal Reserve

Despite growing pressure from the House and ordinary people, the Senate decided not to increase scrutiny on the Federal Reserve. They actually blocked a bid on procedural grounds to have the Government Accountability Office audit the Federal Reserve and issue a report.

[SubGod22]

Federal Reserve Deputy Kohn: Please Don't Let GAO Audit Us!

Federal Reserve deputy chairman Donald Kohn on Thursday defended the US 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.

[RoyalShock]

Federal Reserve Deputy Kohn: Please Don't Let GAO Audit Us!

Federal Reserve deputy chairman Donald Kohn on Thursday defended the US 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.

Good! They need to be chilled a bit!

Sounds like they are trying their damnedest to present what they think appears to us as a legitimate argument against an audit. But most thinking Americans should be very concerned when an agency with such power wants to remain so opaque.

[SubGod22]

Is the Fed's Debt-Buying Unconstitutional?

Is the Federal Reserve violating the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers with its new purchases of $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries? Is the Fed engaging in an unconstitutional monetization of the U.S. Congress' out of control spending spree that is really a bridge loan to fiscal insanity?

At minimum, should the Fed be avoiding these purchases until the fiscally debauched U.S. Congress, packed to the ceiling with fiscal dipsomaniacs, follows Great Britain’s lead in its fiscal abstinence that may "out Thatcher" even Margaret Thatcher, as a top Dallas Fed official says?

Isn’t the problem fiscal incontinence and regulatory misfeasance, and business uncertainty about all of that, which is creating joblessness? Not a lack of liquidity and not deflation, which is not a clear and present danger, as instead inflation is still with us?

And isn’t the Fed dangerously habituating the stock, bond and commodities markets to a “new normal” of constant quantitative easing?

Germany, China, Russia and Brazil are attacking the Fed’s move. President Barack Obama is now defending the Fed in his overseas trip to India. Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin demanded that the Fed "cease and desist" on its bond purchases. Wall Street experts are now starting to call the Fed's moves an end run around the legislature.

And even Fed chairman Bernanke has criticized such extracurricular activity on the part of central banks in the past.

Watching closely in the wings are the Congressmen who want a full-fledged audit of the Fed, including Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who said he will push to examine the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions if he takes control of the Congressional subcommittee that oversees the central bank, as expected, in January.

Last week, the Federal Reserve announced it plans to buy more U.S. Treasury notes and bonds at a massive clip, $600 billion, between now and the end of June in a bid to spur economic demand, lower the jobless rate and resuscitate a still fragile U.S. economy.

The problem is, businesses say they face hyper-taxation and hyper-regulation at the federal, state and local, and that is what is helping to create joblessness. Fed officials agree.

“The remedy for what ails the economy is, in my view, in the hands of the fiscal and regulatory authorities, not the Fed," said Richard Fisher, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in a speech to members of the Association of Financial Professional that was critical of the central bank’s debt purchases.

“Right now, the world is faced with the unprecedented consequence of demand-pull inflationary forces fueled by the voracious consumption of oil, wheat, corn, iron ore, steel and copper, and all other kinds of commodities and inputs, including labor, among the three billion new participants in the global economy,” says Fisher.

But instead of what former Fed chairman William McChesney Martin once famously said -- that the job of a good central banker is to take away the punchbowl just as the party gets going -- Bernanke is spiking the bowl even more.

[SubGod22]

Ben Bernanke's Impossible Dream - by Alan Reynolds

[RoyalShock]

Ben Bernanke's Impossible Dream - by Alan Reynolds

A lot of that went way over my head. But what I think I was able to deduce is that Bernanke is taking actions he hopes will create expectations that result in desired behavior by investors and consumers..

Assuming I'm right, which is that the Fed is banking (sorry for the pun) on two levels of supposition, does it strike anyone else as being illogical?

Maybe this is the "hope" part of "Hope and Change"!

[SubGod22]

That's pretty much how I read it. Some of the guys at CATO are just too smart for me but it's one place I try to go quite a bit.

It does sound as if Ben is hoping for it to work but sounds as if the odds of that happening are pretty slim.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

Back when I was working fast food during college, the best register girl we had got fired for being $50 short on her drawer. These clowns lose $9 trillion and all have jobs still?

I don't want congress to have oversight. That will only make things worse. But accountability must be had, whether its constitutional or not aside, and the GAO is the only way we have to do that.

[Maggie]

Here’s the rationale:

Household spending is increasing gradually, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Business spending on equipment and software is rising, though less rapidly than earlier in the year, while investment in nonresidential structures continues to be weak.

Also Business Insider points out that $600 billion isn’t really the whole show. The Fed will also be reinvesting proceeds from other securities in its portfolio, driving the real number up to nearly $1 trillion.

By the way, Bernanke earned the nickname “Helicopter Ben” because he has had a tendency to print money – and let it lose in the system, just as if he were tossing the cash out of a helicopter.