House panel votes to audit Federal Reserve

[steven johnson]

Source: Associated Press

(AP) – 22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee has voted to pull the curtain on the normally secretive Federal Reserve by subjecting the nation's central bank to a sweeping congressional audit.

The provision would direct the Government Accountability Office to examine transactions the Fed has undertaken to spur lending, stabilize banks and revive the economy.

The Fed is an independent agency of the government and has been shielded from scrutiny. The proposed audit would not include a review of the Fed's monetary policy deliberations.

Antipathy toward the Fed's closed-door activities has grown after it used its emergency powers during last year's financial crisis to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the struggling financial sector.


Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jz6zRMNUfmeJsKv2KaNlBQtu8e7QD9C2SC100

[ixion]

1. good...

:applause:

[alstephenson]

2. And I hope they will be looking back...

past "last year's financial crisis" to what got us there.

[Sinti]

5. +1 a long look back n/t

[pjt7]

3. nice!

-

[gateley]

4. K&R nt

[mike_c]

6. I'm betting this will not happen during our lifetimes...

...or until some very serious changes in governance are make in this country. The federal reserve has more power than Congress in many ways. In the end, Congress will get little useful information, I'll bet.

[lib2DaBone]

7. best news all week! Turn the rock over and see what crawls out...

I think AP is incorrect? I could be wrong.. but I don't think the FED is an independent agency of the government?

I thought the FED is purely a private banking organization?

[No Elephants]

19. If that were so, why would the POTUS be appointing the head of the Fed?

Of course, nailing down the meaning of "independent agency" would be a good trick.

[UpInArms]

8. k&r!

:kick:

[winyanstaz]

9. Well paint me pink :) This is good news...

and I hope this gathers some steam and goes right through the senate in record time and is signed or whatever the frick has to be done to call these bastards to account.

[quakerboy]

10. I assume it now has to go to the floor?

and on and on until it dies with a whimper in a corner, ignored?

[earcandle]

11. oh yeah!

[ArcticFox]

12. It would be nice

However, there is no way they get more than 60% of democrats to go for it in a floor vote. Even that might be optimistic. Thanks to the bailout, there's now billions upon billions of dollars for lobbying against such a thing.

Face it folks, there's no civilized way out of this.

[Ter]

13. Good. The Federal Reserve is a private company

This was Ron Paul's bill I believe.

[C_Lawyer09]

16. Co-sponsored with a democrat, maybe Whitehouse?

After this maybe unblacken the CIA budget and the DOD 25% black budget. Of course I say this after many on du have noted I'm a warmonger, after attempting to explain the complex position Obama is in vis a vis Afghanistan and national, not to mention global security.

[Peace4us]

14. Kucinich is going to Introduce Legislation to Nationalize the Fed

On September 24th, 2009 at the American Monetary Institute Conference in Chicago, Congressman Dennis Kucinich called and told the group that he would be introducing the American Monetary and Financial Security Act in a few weeks.

At this moment his staffers are putting the finishing touches on the bill (which will be close to the one developed by the AMI), which briefly does three things:

1. Nationalizes the Federal Reserve and puts it under Treasury - making it a government function and eliminating Private Bankers from the issuance of the money of the people of the United States.

2. Ends the Fractional reserve banking system and replaces it with one that has a 100% reserve requirement (meaning banks can no longer print money into existence through loans). It would also cap interest on loans at 8%.

3. Spends U.S. dollars (not debt money) into the economy to stimulate it and provide financing for infrastructure projects.

This would essentially end the Federal Reserve banking system that has been in place since 1913 and return the money power to the people via their elected representatives in Congress.

There are functions in place in the bill to keep Congress from inflating. They would be required to publish how much money they are putting in circulation. There would be a monetary board to oversee the process and make sure inflation and deflation were prevented.

The Federal Reserve has presided over the loss of 95% of the value of the dollar in it’s 96 year reign. They precipitated the current economic crisis through their policies. Is it time for them to go? Congress will have a chance to decide.

There is more information here at www.monetary.org.

[laylah]

15. perfect! about time! nt

[laughingliberal]

17. k & r

okay, only 'k.' past time for recs :(

[Blue_Tires]

18. audit the pentagon, too while you are at it..