Free Republic

You would think that a bill supported by nearly three-quarters of the legislature should be a breeze to become law. Not so in today's House of Representatives. The legislative system has become so convoluted and corrupted that not even the legislators know what is in the bills, where the bills are being written, or what bills are pending. Given the current system, it should come as no surprise that a bill which would allow the Congress to audit the Federal Reserve should be stalled in a committee and will soon die. H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009,...

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday voiced his opposition to legislation calling for regular audits of the Fed’s monetary policies, but 79% of Americans think auditing the Fed is a good idea. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just seven percent (7%) of adults oppose auditing the Federal Reserve and making those results available to the public. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure. The new findings mark a four-point increase in support for auditing the Fed from July. The audit - to be conducted by the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative agency - was first...

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) yesterday made some troubling comments about his bill, HR 1207, to audit the Fed. According to Paul, the bill, despite having more than 300 sponsors in the House, was eviscerated in committee, and maintains Fed secrecy on all important avenues if investigation. It stands to figure that what's good for the Fed is bad for you and me; slavery is no longer characterized by chains More.. and confinement and skin color- nowadays slavery is accomplished more with taxation, money manipulation, and debt.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has complained that the bill he sponsored calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve has been "gutted" by congressional committee, pointing specifically to a legislator whose campaign coffers have been boosted by the banking industry. As WND reported, Paul sponsored H.R. 1207, a bill requiring the Federal Reserve – an organization that's independent from the U.S. government but nonetheless oversees U.S. monetary policy – be opened to oversight by Congress. The plan compiled over 300 co-sponsors in the House before being sent to committee. But in a telephone interview with a Bloomberg reporter, Paul said...

Last week a new bill was introduced in the Senate to audit the Federal Reserve. Some backers of my bill HR1207 and the existing Senate companion bill S.604 were a little miffed at this, but depending on how you think about it, this new legislation poses no great threat to our efforts. With the economy in shambles, people are looking for answers - not just because of lost savings on Wall Street, but because of lost houses on Main Street. Because of the many problems we face, the Federal Reserve and its powers over the economy have come under scrutiny....

Although Fisher has a reputation for being one of the Fed's toughest inflation fighters, it marked the second such warning by a central bank official in recent days. Fed member Kevin Warsh on Friday said the central bank will need to move swiftly when the time comes to raise rates. Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and also a hawk against inflation, waded into the debate in a speech Tuesday in Easton, Pa., saying the Fed may need to act "well before" unemployment -- now at a 26-year high of 9.7 percent -- returns to normal....

Zero Hedge has recently presented several declassified documents from the pre-1971 "Nixon Shock" days, that endorse the case for gold as a major historical factor in US monetary and foreign policy, as demonstrated by State Department and CIA disclosure. Gold's special status in policy and administrative decision-making was a direct factor in Nixon's choice to abolish the gold reserve at a time of an exploding budget deficit. Yet what about the days after 1971, and specifically, how did that critical "behind the scenes" organization, the Federal Reserve, perceive and manipulate gold in the post Bretton-Woods world? Was gold, freed from...

The Federal Reserve, in the 1970's, had a secret agreement with the German government whereby the German government agreed not to buy gold in the open market, or from other governments, at a price above the then-official U.S. government price of $42.22 per ounce, despite the fact that the open market price for gold was then trading between $160 to $175 per ounce...

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann had a chance Friday morning to question the top lawyer for the Federal Reserve Bank during hearings into an audit of the Fed proposed by Rep. Ron Paul (with whom she’ll share a stage at the University of Minnesota tonight). “The Federal Reserve seems to have the power to do anything it wants to do without any restrictions whatsoever,” Bachmann said. Bachmann was talking about Section 13.3 of the Federal Reserve Act, under which the Fed can make discount-rate loans to, for instance, bail out Bear Stearns. The Fed’s top lawyer, Scott Alvarez (who charmingly begins...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., on Friday backed a bill to require a broad congressional auditing of how the Federal Reserve carries out its monetary policy, including how much it has lent and will lend to specific banks as part of its bank bailout program. "We are serious about some legislation in this regard," said Frank at a hearing on the bill. "However, some time needs to elapse before certain disclosures take place...we are working together; we want there to be publicity, but we don't want there to be a market effect in the...

House lawmakers want to pry open the books of the famously secretive Federal Reserve with legislation that would subject the central bank to a sweeping congressional audit. The effort is overwhelmingly bipartisan. Hardline conservatives and liberal Democrats have banded together in their criticism of the Fed as a major power broker in the financial system that doesn't answer to Congress. Friday's debate comes as lawmakers consider a proposal by President Barack Obama that would give the Fed new powers to prevent another economic crisis. "Nobody in my district thinks that the Fed has done such a wonderful job of running...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fired a shot at the Federal Reserve in her coming-out speech in Hong Kong today, blaming the central bank for the current crisis and disagreeing with the idea that the Fed should have a greater role in preventing the next crisis. It was an echo of fellow Republican and Texas congressman Ron Paul, who has led the charge in Congress to perform an audit of the Federal Reserve with an eye to eventually eliminating it. “How can we discuss reform without addressing the government policies at the root of the problems? The root of the...

Ron Paul announces that HR 1207 now has 290 co-sponsors, and if the bill were to be brought to the House floor today it would pass.

On Friday, I stated Barney Frank Says Ron Paul's Audit The Fed Bill Will Pass In October. Quite a few others made the same mistake as noted by RonPaul.Com in Misinformation Alert: Barney Frank Never Said That HR 1207 Will Pass In October. 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:...

THE FEDERAL RESERVE MUST DIE “Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value ---- zero.” – Voltaire “The Federal Reserve in collaboration with the giant banks has created the greatest financial crisis the world has ever seen. The foolish notion that unlimited amounts of money and credit created out of thin air can provide sustainable economic growth has delivered this crisis to us. Instead of economic growth and stable prices, (The Fed) has given us a system of government and finance that now threatens the world financial and political institutions. Pursuing the same policy of excessive spending, debt expansion and...

Three out of Four Americans Support a Federal Reserve Audit Filed Under: Government and Legislation With yesterday’s ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska that ordered the Federal Reserve to hand over records regarding the lending of taxpayer money to various financial institution, there’s renewed interest in keeping the federal government accountable for their financial practices—especially when it comes to bailouts and monetary policy. There are currently two pieces of legislation in Congress, HR 1207, which has 282 co-sponsors (101 of which are Democrats) and S 604 which has 23 co-sponsors that would bring new accountability to the Federal...

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday said he opposed legislation moving on Capitol Hill that would allow the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to audit the central bank's monetary policy goals. "We are more than happy to work with the GAO and open to giving them broad authority to look at various aspects of our operations, including our responses to the financial crisis, but we are worried that an audit of monetary policy would result in a reduction of the independence of the Fed," Bernanke told lawmakers at a hearing on regulatory reform on...

After we broke through the 218 cosponsor threshold on H.R. 1207, I didn't think today could get any better. However, we have even more news. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) today became the first cosponsor of S 604, H.R. 1207's companion legislation. We still have a long way to go before we pass real legislation to Audit the Fed, but this is yet another major step toward our ultimate goal. Sen. DeMint is highly respected and one of the most principled conservatives in Washington. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), 604's lead sponsor, is a firebrand Independent progressive. To see these two guys on...

Less than 24 hours after WND reported a proposal from U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to audit the Federal Reserve was approaching majority support in the U.S. House, he is confirming the plan has reached that "crucial benchmark." "The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for H.R. 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy," Paul said shortly after U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, became the 218th cosponsor, giving the plan, technically, majority support in the 435-member House. "I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure," Paul said. A spokeswoman in...

Key quote from this interview (must-see!): "If the Fed examiners were set upon the Fed's own documents—unlabeled documents—to pass judgment on the Fed's capacity to survive the difficulties it faces in credit, it would shut this institution down," he said. "The Fed is undercapitalized in a way that Citicorp is undercapitalized." This guy is not a "nobody" either - he's a major force in the bond market, editor of a very well-recognized publication since 1983. Ignore him at your peril. Yeah, I know, The Fed issued some new disclosure today. It of course shows them "well-capitalized". So did Bear Stearns'...