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Editorial: Focus on the Fed [WaPo slams Ron Paul in unsigned editorial]
The Washington Post ^ | 2009-07-24

Posted on 07/25/2009 7:09:11 PM PDT by rabscuttle385

Transparency at the central bank is a serious question. It deserves a serious answer.

The Federal Reserve Board's independence is a bit like the judiciary's independence. Absolutely vital for the institution's proper functioning, it nevertheless depends on Congress and the president to respect decisions with which they disagree. In such cases, the best protection for either the Supreme Court or the Fed is to stay strictly within its legally prescribed authority and to act according to principled criteria: legal ones for the justices, technical economic ones for the central bank.

Which brings us to the proposed Federal Reserve Transparency Act, sponsored by anti-Fed crusader Ron Paul (R-Tex.) in the House and socialist Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Senate. In the name of open government, it would subject the Fed's decisions to a full-blown audit by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Though the bill has attracted 276 co-sponsors in the House and 17 in the Senate, it is wrongheaded in the extreme.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: 111th; auditthefed; demint; fed; financialcrisis; lping; panicof2009; paul; ronpaul; sanders
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"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
1 posted on 07/25/2009 7:09:11 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
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To: djsherin; bamahead; sickoflibs; Impy

The establishment feels...threatened.


2 posted on 07/25/2009 7:10:11 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 (Who is Jim Thompson?)
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To: rabscuttle385

I’m no big fan of Ron Paul, but for the whores, prostitutes and influence peddlers at the Wapo to slam anybody is quite dubious.


3 posted on 07/25/2009 7:11:37 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: rabscuttle385; djsherin; bamahead; murphE; Extremely Extreme Extremist; Captain Kirk; Gondring; ...

Ping


4 posted on 07/25/2009 7:11:45 PM PDT by djsherin (Government is essentially the negation of liberty.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Apparently the Fed is a fourth branch of government that has zero oversight.


5 posted on 07/25/2009 7:13:04 PM PDT by FastCoyote (I am intolerant of the intolerable.)
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To: rabscuttle385

The overclass doesn’t want us to ask too many questions about the workings of this particular Potemkin village. Keep moving, sheeple!


6 posted on 07/25/2009 7:13:18 PM PDT by oblomov (Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods. - Mencken)
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To: rabscuttle385
Let me check my constitution.. Let's see... Executive branch, Legislative branch, Judicial branch - Huh, someone forgot to include the Federal Reserve on that level...

When you can't answer where billions and perhaps trillions in assets are, you can really expect someone’s going to want to look at your books.

7 posted on 07/25/2009 7:18:11 PM PDT by kingu (Party for rent - conservative opinions not required.)
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To: rabscuttle385

The problem with Wapo’s Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch analogy is that these entities are created separately in the Constitution. Nowhere in the Constitution does it describe a Central Bank, with separate economic powers. Open the books!


8 posted on 07/25/2009 7:26:59 PM PDT by perchprism
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To: rabscuttle385
Dear Washington Post,

While I can find the Constitutional authorization for an independent Federal Judiciary, I seem to be unable to locate the specific, enumerated power of Congress to create a Bank of any kind.

Can any of the WaPo brain trust point it out to me?

Thanks in advance,

L

9 posted on 07/25/2009 7:34:57 PM PDT by Lurker (The avalanche has begun. The pebbles no longer have a vote.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Someone needs to tell the fools at WaPo, that the Fed was no created by the Constitution, there is no such think as separation , etc, etc. What fools!!


10 posted on 07/25/2009 7:40:06 PM PDT by org.whodat (Vote: Chuck De Vore in 2012.)
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To: rabscuttle385

I respect the idea that the Fed ought to remain independent and free of political influence.

But the point is — they’re NOT NOW! They are in total collusion with the Treasury, every step of the way. Who is kidding who here? Without transparency, the Fed can be — and, I believe, IS — corrupt to the core.

It escapes me why they’re fighting the consept of making everything they do open and above board in every single detail. That seems to me to be simple common sense.


11 posted on 07/25/2009 7:55:14 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Stop dissing drunken sailors! At least they spend their OWN money.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Some very powerful people are exercising influence over the (currently financially vulnerable) media to prevent a light from shining upon their (criminal) activities. The amount of money at stake is in the same territory as the federal deficit.

There are several layers to the defensive strategy, including a “hearts and minds” media (old and new) campaign which we are seeing now. The largest protective investment, however, has been the successful placement of hundreds of private financial beneficiaries of fed activities into positions of government power. Even if an investigation is launched, how many of those performing the audit are alumni with (obfuscated) retained holdings, or otherwise beneficiaries of the collection of firms who only stand to lose by any revelation of what is now hidden by shadows?

This cancer has been festering for almost a century. The fed needs to be abolished outright, and replaced with a dispassionate, deterministic algorithm with a strict inflation target of under 0.1% (growth of money supply only following growth of formal market demand for money as to account for genuine economic growth - and a gold standard is no panacea because it would be open to simple government subversion) having mathematical form, parameter values, code, and output publicly available and subject to modification only upon unanimous consent of both houses of Congress and the President.


12 posted on 07/25/2009 7:56:41 PM PDT by M203M4 (NEW New Deal: A pot through every window! (1/2 credit to Bastiat))
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To: kingu
When you can't answer where billions and perhaps trillions in assets are, you can really expect someone’s going to want to look at your books.

The Fed publishes their balance sheet every week.

13 posted on 07/25/2009 8:43:58 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Math is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

And you believe what the Fed publishes?


14 posted on 07/25/2009 8:54:26 PM PDT by kenn5
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To: FastCoyote

It’s mot a branch of government. It’s a private, for profit corporation.


15 posted on 07/25/2009 8:58:00 PM PDT by SUSSA
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To: rabscuttle385

You realize this realistically could mean an actual war on our soil. They will fight this to the end. So… We shall see if ‘diplomacy’ works and the masses back down, or will we stick with it until they have to show their cards?

This is becoming amazing…


16 posted on 07/25/2009 9:03:41 PM PDT by cliniclinical (space for rent)
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To: kenn5

Why wouldn’t I?


17 posted on 07/25/2009 9:09:27 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Math is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

The unwillingness of the Fed to open its books indicates it has something to hide.


18 posted on 07/25/2009 10:40:58 PM PDT by Kells (Andrew Jackson was the only President to pay off the National Debt. His Epitaph: "I Killed the Bank")
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To: Luke21
It is edifying to see the Wapo standing up for independence, staying strictly within legally prescribed authority, and acting according to principled criteria.

Or maybe the Post is holding out for $25,000 each from Ron Paul and hist cohorts to arrange a salon providing access to Fed staffers.

19 posted on 07/25/2009 11:04:45 PM PDT by Kells (Andrew Jackson was the only President to pay off the National Debt. His Epitaph: "I Killed the Bank")
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To: rabscuttle385; Abathar; Abcdefg; Abram; Abundy; akatel; albertp; AlexandriaDuke; Alexander Rubin; ..
Anonymous cowards.



Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!
(View past Libertarian pings here)
20 posted on 07/26/2009 5:21:07 AM PDT by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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