What Would Be Involved in an Audit of the Federal Reserve? – Part One

There has been a self-conscious effort to confuse the proposed audit of the Federal Reserve, initiated by Ron Paul, in order to fight off what would be unveiled and revealed by that very audit.

So before we get into what an audit of the Federal Reserve would entail, let’s look at part of the basic argument Ben Bernanke has brought forth concerning the issue.

Here’s what Bernanke has said concerning an audit:

“Because GAO reviews may be initiated at the request of members of Congress, reviews or the threat of reviews in these areas could be seen as efforts to try to influence monetary policy decisions.”

The GAO refers to the General Accounting Office, which at this time is not allowed to audit the Fed, and which the legislation put forth by Ron Paul wants to change.

Ben Bernanke evidently doesn’t read the Constitution of the United States, as if he did, he wouldn’t have made the statement above which contradicts it.

For example, in Section 1 of the Constitution it says that “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

That means that whatever powers described in the following statements within the Constitution are “granted and vested in a Congress.” Ok. That’s simple enough to understand and can’t be argued against in an honest manner.

Now let’s go to Article 8 of the constitution which speaks directly to the issue at hand, where according to Bernanke  an audit shouldn’t be allowed because it could be seen as efforts to try to “influence monetary policy decisions.”

Here are the powers granted to Congress by the Constitution in Article 8 regarding money: it can coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.

So what is Bernanke talking about then? Obviously he has no idea, because Congress has been directly provided the power by the Constitution to be completely involved and responsible for monetary policies in the United States.

Evidently Congress has either forgotten this or doesn’t want to bother with it; but there it is.

This article has started to be a little longer in its introduction than I was planning, so I’ll let you digest this and get back soon with Part 2 on what an audit of the Federal Reserve would look like.

For now, the point to understand is that the Constitution gives Congress the power to set and be directly involved with monetary policy, and an audit of the Federal Reserve easily falls within those parameters.

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4