Rep. Ron Paul and Dan Gross discussed with Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task, Bernanke’s Tuesday testimony and his subcommittee’s hearing. It shouldn’t surprise to anyone that longtime Fed critic Paul didn’t agree with Bernanke’s testimony, especially Bernanke’s claims that QE2 is working and that inflation isn’t a worry.
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Some working in the Federal Reserve have taken it upon themselves to attack Ron Paul, who is now in position to audit the Fed, and others who question the powers of the Fed.
Representative Paul fights back in this impassioned speech on the floor, taking the Fed to task for not anticipating the financial crisis, and for taking credit for rescuing the economy (not that it’s rescued) when they really only rescued the banks, not the American people.
Lawmakers like Ron Paul are unfortunately few, and are really the only hope to save the country. Support him and others who speak the turth, plainly, loudly, and over and over.
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How afraid is the Fed of Ron Paul? Scared shitless I’d say.
Why in the world would the Fed be afraid of this man?
On Saturday, the Houston Chronicle ran an op-ed by Paul Hobby, who is chairman of the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. It’s called Hands off the fed, with the subtitle of “Eliminating U.S. ability to conduct monetary policy is a very bad idea.”
The article’s obvious target is Ron Paul, who will take the reins of the monetary policy subcommittee with oversight responsibility for the Fed. Why would this scare the Fed? Just the little bit about Paul only wanting not not only audit the Fed as soon as possible, but abolish the Fed eventually.
The sooner Ron Paul gets to work on this, the better.
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Last week, in an announcement that must have sent shivers through Ben Bernanke, it was announced that Representative Ron Paul will chair the congressional subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. And Benanke is in his sights. A couple years ago, I would have characterized this as David and Goliath struggle, with the victory going to Goliath. But times are different now, with the Fed held in low regard and high suspicion, and the words of Ron Paul increasingly given more respect as his once far-fetched views, as held by some, become more mainstream. With the winds of the Tea Party victories behind his back, Ron Paul, while not yet able to embark on his mission to “end the fed,” I’m certain will be able to begin his long sought after audit of the Fed. And we can’t wait.
Listen to his December 13, 2010 Straight Talk recording to hear what a man on a mission sounds like. Then pass it around to your friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqZYVCCNs_E
Transcript:
We Need a Full and Complete AUDIT of the Federal Reserve!
by Ron Paul
Since the announcement last week that I will chair the congressional subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve, the media response has been overwhelming. The groundswell of opposition to Fed actions among ordinary citizens is reflected not only in the rhetoric coming out of Capitol Hill, but also in the tremendous interest shown by the financial press. The demand for transparency is growing whether the political and financial establishment likes it or not. The Fed is losing its vaunted status as an institution that is somehow above politics and public scrutiny. Fed transparency will be the cornerstone of my efforts as Subcommittee Chairman.
Thanks to public pressure earlier this year Congress did pass legislation that requires the Fed to disclose some information about its bailout of select industries and companies following the 2008 financial crisis. So two weeks ago the Fed released data concerning more than $3 trillion worth of assistance it offered to banks through its bailout facilities. After revealing this data, however, we are left with many more questions about the Fed’s lending.
In the Term Securities Lending Facility the Fed was supposed to have loaned against AAA-rated securities. Yet over half of the collateral put up by banks who obtained loans had no listed credit rating. Should we assume that the Fed accepted absolute junk-rated securities as collateral for loans? Presumably these securities were so bad that they wouldn’t even publicize their credit rating! So why should our Central Bank, backed up by your taxes, accept such collateral? On another note, of the $1.25 trillion purchased by the Fed’s mortgage-backed securities purchase program, only $877 billion in purchases have been publicized. What happened to the remaining $400 billion?
These kinds of limited disclosures by the Fed only underscore the need for a full and complete audit of the Fed’s financial books. This audit should be done by an independent third party in the same manner that public companies are audited. The Fed should make public its balance sheet, income statement and — perhaps most importantly – its cashflow statement. It also should publicize the notes explaining those financial statements.
We seem to forget sometimes that Congress created the Fed. It is a government-created banking monopoly and its top decision makers are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. If the Fed does not perform satisfactorily in the eyes of these politicians and their constituents, the Chairman and Governors may not be renominated. In theory, Congress — since it has the authority to do so — could even go so far as to repeal the Federal Reserve Act altogether.
Obviously Congress is within its authority to audit an organization it created by statute, and it’s time it assumed this responsibility. With 320 members of Congress co-sponsoring my legislation to fully audit the Fed in the 111th Congress, my hope is that we can build on our broad bi-partisan coalition in 2011 and continue the push for greater Fed transparency going forward.
Thanks for calling. A new update is recorded at 888 322 1414 every Monday morning, and the written text can be found on my website at www.house.gov/paul under the heading “Texas Straight Talk”. Thanks for calling.
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If you think Ben Bernanke was nervous on 60 Minutes Sunday, just think how much he’ll enjoy facing off with the new chairman of the Domestic Monetary Policy subcommittee, a man who wants to abolish the very Federal Reserve Bernanke leads — representative Ron Paul.
Paul, in an interview last week, said he plans a slate of hearings on U.S. monetary policy and will restart his push for a full audit of the Fed’s functions. This, my friends, is going to make C-Span worth watching!
Here’s a recent 12-minute interview of Ron Paul by Russia Today (RT), where he covers quite a lot of ground, from the Fed to Sarah Palin, and everything in between.
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It shouldn’t seem revolutionary, but with this government unfortunately it is: Ron Paul says congress should refuse to raise the debt limit. Instead, they need to find a way for congress to spend only what the Treasury raises in revenue on a month-to-month basis.
In addition, forget all the talk about baseline budgets and discretionary spending — “it’s all discretionary,” he says. Take the the 13 appropriations bills that fund the federal government and rewrite them.
But as we all know, Paul’s words are just a voice in the wind, never to be heard seriously.
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Ron Paul wants to strip the “atrocious organization,” known as the Federal Reserve, of it’s ability to do central economic planning, specifically, its mandate to keep unemployment low. This mandate is in its charter, but Paul says it is not in the constitution.
As he says, “All they know how to do is print money, and it doesn’t do any good. That’s what these last two years have proven.”
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