Reader comments
Readers' forum: Endorse bill to audit Fed

Anonymous | 7:01 a.m. July 9, 2009

First, the bill was only introduced in late February. The fact that it is in committee still is not at all unusual. I also suspect that there are issues on how this fits into the new regulatory proposals of the financial services industry, which is badly needed. The bill does do more than the writer suggests - so it is not black and white. So I would not get your knickers in a twist. By the way, are you a Ron Paul guy?

Hope | 8:22 a.m. July 9, 2009

I hope this one makes it. It is supported by more than half of the House and will provide the transparency at the heart of our financial system that is needed.

It is the Senate that may be the problem. Contact your senators and ask them to support "Audit the Fed" ( I believe S604 is the Senate version of the bill).

@author | 9:23 a.m. July 9, 2009

I agree in principle with auditing the fed. However, low interest had nothing to do with the collapse. It was and always we be capitalistic greed. Developers, builders, realtors, lenders, title companies and investors were responsible for the housing crash. They could not justify their increases that led to housing inflation. They and only they are to blame. Ironically, they blame the fed, congress, and sub-prime loans, etc..

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Anonymous | 9:24 a.m. July 9, 2009

Auditing the Fed is a good idea but just a start.

Abolishing the Fed is a better idea as well as repealing the Commodities modernization act, the community reinvestment act, & Gramm-Leach-Billey.

@ 9:23 am | 11:03 a.m. July 9, 2009

9:24 has it right, but the emphasis is overwhelmingly on the Community Reinvestment Act. Even now, the FDIC is vigorously enforcing this act that has led us into the financial morass that we are in. Check out the FDIC web site; they regularly issue press releases about CRA enforcement.

If we had any real leaders in Congress, the CRA would have been repealed long before any stimulus bill was passed.

Congress is kind of like health care: Health care gives you pill B to treat the side effects of pill A, and then prescribes pill C to treat the side effects of pill B. Congress pass'es bill B to clean up the consequences of bill A, and then passes bill C to clean up the consequences of bill B, etc.

When it becomes obvious that a bill causes more harm than good, it would be much better to just get rid of the problem bill rather than add insult to injury.

Roland Kayser | 1:04 p.m. July 9, 2009

A question for all who blame the CRA for our current diffuculties. The law was passed in 1977, are you saying that it worked pretty well for thirty years, and then, all of a sudden, caused the world economy to implode? That sounds like a foolish proposition to me.

To @: | 2:55 p.m. July 9, 2009

I hate capitalism, blah, blah, blah. I hate capitalism, blah, blah, blah. I hate capitalism, blah, blah blah. Give me good old socialism with a work force with no incentive to better themselves and a third world standard of living.

Randall King | 6:56 p.m. July 9, 2009

9:23 a.m
Paul Krugman disagrees with you. When he advocated for the creation of the housing bubble.
"To fight this recession the Fed needs…soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. [So] Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble." Paul Krugman 2002 (I could provide the link if allowed)
How could Greenspan create this bubble other than to lower interest rates?

Randall King@ 7:01 | 7:01 p.m. July 9, 2009

Enlighten us, what else does this bill do?

Whether or not these regulations are needed, the last organization that control them is the Federal reserve.

I'm not really a Ron Paul guy, I like to take things issue by issue. I've seen too much allegiance to parties, and pundits. I try to avoid making the same mistake.

Randall King | 7:02 p.m. July 9, 2009

The number of cosponsors is up to 250. Sorry for the mistake.

Fed not "capitalism" | 7:38 a.m. July 10, 2009

The Fed represents big banking, not a constitutional system of sound money.

Since FDR brazenly took silver coins out in the first Great Depression money has done nothing but inflate,inflate and inflate. Who benefits from this? Insider financiers. Who loses? Everybody else.

The machinations of the Fed need to be seen at all times. This bill is long overdue.

Who has benefited by the bank bailouts? The biggest banks. Who lost? Everbody else. Who are the members of the Federal Reserve? What are their actual and specific connections to the banking industry?

The Fed has about the same relationship to Capitalism as a terrorist to national security.

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