Posted on 08/31/2009 6:23:31 AM PDT by markomalley
Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said he plans legislation to restrict the Federal Reserve's emergency lending powers and subject the central bank to a "complete audit."
At a recent town hall meeting, Frank said the House would pass a bill to use an audit to crack open the central bank's books more widely, but in a way that will not encroach on the central bank's monetary policy independence.
In addition, he said the House would move to rein in the authority that allows the Fed to lend to a wide range of non-bank firms in "unusual and exigent circumstances."
A bill sponsored by Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul that would allow the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency, to audit Fed interest-rate decisions has won the co-sponsorship of more than half of the House.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned that the bill would compromise the U.S. central bank's policy-making independence and could undermine financial markets and the economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
HR 1207 IH
111th CONGRESS
1st Session H. R. 1207 To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 26, 2009 Mr. PAUL (for himself, Mr. KAGEN, Mrs. BACHMANN, Mr. BARTLETT, Mr. JONES, Mr. REHBERG, Mr. POSEY, Mr. BROUN of Georgia, Mr. POE of Texas, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, and Ms. WOOLSEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009'.
SEC. 2. AUDIT REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY FOR THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.
(a) In General- Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after `shall audit an agency' and inserting a period.
(b) Audit- Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
`(e) Audit and Report of the Federal Reserve System-
`(1) IN GENERAL- The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.
`(2) REPORT-
`(A) REQUIRED- A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.
`(B) CONTENTS- The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.'.
Aint gonna happen.
H.R. 1207’s companion bill in the Senate, S. 604, needs some more co-sponsors. I encourage everyone to call their senators and bug ‘em about it.
President Bush took his advice and is sorry for doing so - I betcha!!!
Barney Frank thinks he can use public furor over the Fed to push through “Finanacial Reform” in October. Financial reform to Barney Frank means further federal regulation and meddling in mortgages, credit cards, and banking in general. All Freepers should immediately contact their Congress Critters to get H.R.1207 passed as a stand-alone bill, just as it is now. Also, contact your Senators about the Senate version of this bill, S.604, the “Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009.” S.604 is virtually identical to Ron Paul’s H.R.1207, and it’s sponsored by Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders. I never thought I’d be advocating a bill sponsored by Bernie Sanders, but this shows that the “Audit the Fed” movement is widespread and bipartisan. This is something that should be addressed quickly. Barney and his friends in the Dem Leadership should not be allowed to water this down and attach a bunch of unconstitutional “reforms” to this.
I have a better idea... try and execute the poofter.
LLS
Jim Rodgers, Billionair and one time partner to Soros, has said the Fed might be gone in ten years.
Everything, every reason given for the Fed, has either been proved wrong, or the Fed has violated it.
Money, especially fiat paper money, is too important to be in the hands of the government.
End the Fed, put the US back on real gold, and let the rest of us make our own promissory notes.
Just more proof that the "Progressives" are wrong on all counts.....
I saw Bwarney a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t look healthy. Fat, high blood pressure, sweaty, mentally agitated and stressed. He’s 65, morbidly obese, and a fag which is good for 7-12 years less than normal males.
With the bowel obstruction of Ted now ejected out of the anus of Massachusetts politics, and soon Bwarney joining Liberace and Rock Hudson in the great gay bar, throw in the legions of near New York state incompetents, illiterates, hacks Democrats waiting in their colon like positions, plus M-ASS-achusetts losing a congressional seat...there’s real political mess spewing out for the Gay State.
When even Barney Frank starts to push conservative legislation, you KNOW the democrats are in trouble!
ROFL
Watch em run for the hills !
ROFL
The Fed is/was a perfect bi partisan effort of mercantilist GOP big business, coupled with the usual pseudo scientific clap trap notion of an elite, isolated from...( get this! )..politics.. that would ‘manage’ the nations money supply.
Well as Nobel economist James M. Buchanan pointed out in his winning ‘Public Choice’ theory, bureaucracies become all about themselves first and foremost, everything else be dammed.
Why do people listen to this little Queer?Everyone should know his back ground..
“Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, an acknowledged homosexual, today confirmed that his Washington apartment had been used as a callboy headquarters by a male prostitute for a year and a half until late 1987. Responding to a story in today’s Washington Times, Frank said he had hired the prostitute out of his own funds as a personal aide and fired him when he found out what was going on.”
http://newsbusters.org/node/8119
ABC wan’t always a pimp for the Omama administration..
Misinformation Alert: Barney Frank Never Said That HR 1207 Will Pass In October
By tmartin • August 28, 2009
Missing Sentence in Transcript Causes Premature HR 1207 Victory Celebration
Several blogs and forums reported during the past 24 hours that Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank, said that Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve, HR 1207, will pass in October.
Incorrect Reports about Barney Frank’s Statement on HR 1207
Washington Times: Barney Frank says Ron Paul bill will pass
Politico: Barney: Fed audit bill will pass in October
Business Insider: Barney Frank: Yes, We Will Pass Ron Paul’s “Audit The Fed” Bill
United Liberty: Frank: Vote on HR 1207 in October
Daily Paul: Video: Barney Frank Says House Will Pass HR1207 in October
ZeroHedge: Barney Frank Says The House Will Pass HR 1207 In October
Mish: Barney Frank Says Ron Paul’s Audit The Fed Bill Will Pass In October – (Update posted)
Washington Independent: Ron Paul’s ‘Audit the Fed’ Bill to Get October Vote?
The source of the rumor seems to be the following video.
A sloppy and incomplete transcript, which appears to have originated at the Washington Times which was originally prepared by Mish and then copied by the Washington Times, is making the rounds. The transcript is missing an essential sentence, which is marked in bold:
Barney Frank: “I have been pushing for more openness from the Fed. I want to restrict the powers of the Federal Reserve. First of all, the Fed will be the major losers of power if we are successful, as I believe we will be, setting up a financial product protection commission. The Federal Reserve is now charged with protecting consumers. They were supposed to do subprime mortgage restrictions.
Congress in 1994 gave the Fed powers to ban subprime mortgages. Alan Greenspan refused to do it. They had the power to ban credit card abuses. Under Greenspan they did nothing. Under Bernanke they started but only after Congress acted.That’s one of the reasons why in the new consumer protection agency, we will take away from the Federal reserve the power to go consumer protection.
Secondly, they have has since 1932 a right under Herbert Hoover to intervene in the economy whenever they could. Last September, the Federal Reserve they were going to advance $82 billion to AIG. I was kind of surprised and said, ‘Mr Bernanke do you have $82 billion?’ Mr. Bernanke replied, ‘I have $800 billion and under section 13.3 of the Federal Reserve Act they can lend anything they want.’
We are going to curtail that lending power. We are going to put some restrictions on it.
Finally we will subject them to a complete audit. I have been working with Ron Paul, who is the main sponsor of that bill. He agrees that we don’t want to have the audit appear as if it influences monetary policy as that would be inflationary.
One of the things the audit will show you is what the Federal Reserve buys itself. And that will be made public, but not instantly because if it was made instantly people would be trading off it, so the data would be released after a time period of several months, enough time so it will not be market sensitive. That will be part of the overall federal regulation that we are redacting. This will probably pass in October.”
With “This will probably pass in October”, Frank is referring not to HR 1207, but to his own financial regulation bill, which might or might not include some aspects of Ron Paul’s HR 1207. The preceding sentence, “That will be part of the overall federal regulation that we are redacting,” is for some reason missing from the widely distributed transcript, and has therefore been completely ignored by bloggers and commentators.
In recent weeks Ron Paul repeatedly warned against just this sort of thing happening: that HR 1207 might become part of a more comprehensive financial regulation bill and be watered down so that it appeases the angry masses without instituting any real changes. It would be an irony of history if that happened — if HR 1207 were watered down and integrated into an unconstitutional bill that Ron Paul would have to vote against.
What did Ron Paul really say?
It has become fashionable for the political elite to try to distort Ron Paul’s statements for political gain or even put entirely new words into his mouth. Just the other day, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said, “Even [Ron Paul] recognizes how important it is to us to have the Fed independent of politics.”
Now Barney Frank claims that “[Ron Paul] agrees that we don’t want to have the audit appear as if it influences monetary policy as that would be inflationary.”
Ron Paul never said that an audit of the Federal Reserve would be inflationary. In fact, he has credibly demonstrated the exact opposite: that the secretive Federal Reserve itself is responsible for inflation, with the dollar having lost 96% of its value since the Fed’s creation in 1913.
Here is what Ron Paul actually said about HR 1207, the bill to audit the Federal Reserve, and why only a real audit will protect the public’s interest.
Ron Paul: “Mr. Speaker, the big guns have lined up against HR 1207, the bill to audit the Federal Reserve. What is it that they are so concerned about? What information are they hiding from the American people? The screed is: transparency is okay except for those things they don’t want to be transparent.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, argues that HR 1207, the legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, would politicize monetary policy. He claims that monetary policy must remain independent, that is; secret. He ignores history because chairmen of the Federal Reserve in the past, especially when up for reappointment, do their best to accommodate the president with politically driven low interest rates and a bubble economy.
Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur Burns, when asked about all the inflation he brought about in 1971 before Nixon’s reelection, said that the Fed has to do what the president wants it to do, or it would lose its independence. That about tells you everything.
Not by accident Chairman Burns strongly supported Nixon’s program of wage and price controls the same year, but I guess that’s not political. Is not making secret deals with the likes of Goldman Sachs, international financial institutions, foreign governments and foreign central banks politicizing monetary policy?
Bernanke argues that the knowledge that their discussions and decisions will one day be scrutinized will compromise the freedom of the Open Market Committee to pursue sound policy. If it is sound and honest and serves no special interest, what’s the problem?
He claims that HR 1207 would give power to Congress to affect monetary policy. He dreamt this up to instill fear, an old statist trick to justify government power. HR 1207 does nothing of the sort. He suggested that the day after an FOMC meeting, Congress could send in the GAO to demand an audit of everything said and done. This is hardly the case. The FOMC function under HR 1207 would not change.
The detailed transcripts of the FOMC meetings are released every 5 years, so why would this be so different and what is it that they don’t want the American people to know? Is there something about the transcripts that need to be kept secret, or are the transcripts actually not verbatim?
Fed sycophants argue that an audit would destroy the financial markets’ faith in the Fed. They say this in the midst of the greatest financial crisis in history brought on by none other than the Federal Reserve. In fact, Chairman Bernanke stated on November 14th 2007, “A considerable amount of evidence indicates that Central Bank transparency increases the effectiveness of monetary policy and enhances economic and financial performance”.
They also argue that an audit would hurt the value of the U.S. dollar. In fact, the Fed, in less than a 100 years of its existence, has reduced the value of the 1914 dollar by 96%.
They claim HR 1207 would raise interest rates. How could it? The Fed sets interest rates and the bill doesn’t interfere with monetary policy. Congress would have no say in the matter and besides, Congress likes low interest rates.
It is argued that the Fed wouldn’t be free to raise interest rates if they thought it necessary. But Bernanke has already assured the Congress that rates are going to stay low for the foreseeable future. And again, this bill does nothing to allow Congress to interfere with interest rate setting.
Fed supporters claim that they want to protect the public’s interest with their secrecy. But the banks and Wall Streets are the opponents of HR 1207, and the people are for it. Just who best represents the public’s interest?
The real question is: why are Wall Street and the Fed so hysterically opposed to HR 1207? Just what information are they so anxious to keep secret? Only an audit of the Federal Reserve will answer these questions.”
75% Want A Real Audit
We need to keep up the pressure to make sure that HR 1207 itself is put up for vote. 75% of the American people want a real audit of the Federal Reserve, not a pretend investigation that goes to great pains not to ruffle any feathers, claiming that too close a look at what the Wizard is doing behind the curtain would be “inflationary” (Frank) and “problematic for the country” (Geithner).
http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-08-28/barney-frank-didnt-say-that-hr-1207-will-pass-in-october/
I wonder what is in it for Frank other to take the heat off him for his screw ups.
And, never has that theory been shown, over and over again, to be true more than it has within the United States gubmint....
Damn I like the sound of that!
LLS
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