Last post we talked about Congress being granted the power by the Constitution to “coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.”
So Congress obviously has the authority to do that, and by extension, to audit the Federal Reserve. I have went into some length on that because it’s one of the tools being used to prevent the audit from becoming a reality by Ben Bernanke and his allies.
Now whether or not the Federal Reserve should even exist is a different question, and I won’t cloud the proposed audit of them with that. But because it does exist, and the Constitution places responsibility on Congress for monetary policy, they not only have the right, but the obligation to know and understand what is going on there, and communicating it to the American people.
With that in mind, what would an audit of the Federal Reserve involve and what would auditors be looking for?
For the answer to that we must go to the existing laws of the United States and Ron Paul, who knows more about this than any politician.
But before we tackle that, let’s look at one other fallacy that must be demolished in order to proceed with minimal confusion. Remember, a lot of the battle for the minds of Americans in regard to auditing the Fed is to confuse everyone to what’s going on in order to cast it aside as something beyond their understanding.
That’s the case with Ben Bernanke trying to spin that the Federal Reserve must retain its “independent” status.
Is the Federal Reserve truly independent now, or has it ever been? Never. Let’s look at a couple of facts.
The chairman of the Federal Reserve is appointed by the president of the United States every four years. Within that context the Senate offers its advice and consent of the candidate to the president.
So how does the chairman, Ben Bernanke in this case, retain his job? He must move in line with the desires of the president and to a lesser degree, the Senate, in order to keep his job.
Every decision and action taken by the chairman and the Board of Governors is made with that axe hanging over their heads. Independence? Sure!
This is why you see ridiculous decisions being made by the Fed over and over again, as every president and the politicians wanting to hold office pressure the Federal Reserve to take steps to ensure that short-term positive results, which are really illusions, are enacted and put into play so they can get re-elected.
In other words, independence is a joke. There never has been and there never will be. In future articles we’ll get into why the Federal Reserve is really resisting the audit. But just keep in mind it’s not because of independence. Independence is only a legal separation set on paper, not a practical one. And as we’ve shown, the Congress should never have Constitutionally delegated authority to the Federal Reserve and let them go on their “independent” way. Independence is only cited by Federal Reserve officials and misguided politicians when the Fed comes under scrutiny; which is very seldom. They’re under scrutiny now though, and are trying anything they can to keep from having to be transparent.
So going forward, understand that Congress has the authority in monetary matters, and the Federal Reserve is only independent on paper, not in reality.
