http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6D7VO2eEJc

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #1: Social Security

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTZpRfy594E

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #2: How Do You Protect Seniors When So Much Goes To Defense?

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #3: What Would You Do To Get The Economy Moving Forward?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFFspKExOBA

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #4: Can You Be Pro Business & Pro Worker?

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #5: Should The Federal Reserve Be Audited?

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #6: How Much Of My Pay Check Should I Be Allowed To Keep?

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #7: Executive Orders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWtvD6CCb8M

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #8: What Is Your Plan To Reduce Healthcare Cost?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFYaRp-qlss

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #9: What Would You Do To Remove Illegal Immigrants?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koop3Un31BY

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #10: Do You Plan To Decrease Defense Spending?

Tea Party Republican Debate Question #11: What Would You Bring To The White House?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=971TTv2xp0g

112^th Congress: 2011-2012

Sponsor: Rep. Ronald Paul [R-TX14]

The Hill reports Rep. Ron Paul introduced legislation on Monday to cancel the $1.6 trillion of federal government debt held by Federal Reserve. The Hill writes,

Paul has argued for the last few weeks that the idea represents a quick way to make the growing fiscal crisis more manageable. Under his bill, H.R. 2768, the $1.6 trillion that the Treasury owes to the Federal Reserve would disappear.

The Federal Reserve began buying Treasury bonds in earnest late last year as part of its effort to keep long-term interest rates down. But Paul has argued that Fed purchases of Treasury debt represent a debt that the government owes to itself, and one that also leads to an unwanted and inflationary increase in the money supply…

“If the federal government cannot cut spending and bring the budget back into balance, the Fed undoubtedly will be forced to simply monetize trillions of dollars in Treasury debt, which is nothing more than a stealth form of default,” Paul said back in May.

Wow!   Our Asian creditors better beware of xenophobic Congressman.  What Bizarro times in which we live.

source: http://www.businessinsider.com/hr-2768-would-cancel-16-tn-in-treasury-debt-held-by-fed-2011-8#ixzz1TwAcX51T

During a 2½ year period starting at the end of 2007, the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in secret bailouts to banks and other companies around the world, according to a government audit of some of the U.S. central bank’s operations.

Much of the Fed’s largesse was lavished on banks in Europe (such as Barclays, left)  and Asia, the audit revealed. More than $3 trillion, for example, went to financial institutions in just five European countries. Trillions more flowed toward some of the biggest banks in America. Institutions from Brazil and Mexico to South Korea and Canada also benefited.

The 266-page report, produced by Congress’s non-partisan investigative service known as the Government Accountability Office (GAO), has already sparked intense outrage since its release on July 21. Fed apologists, however, have been quick to defend the actions, saying they were “necessary” to “save” the economy and justified under the Federal Reserve Act.

“The scale and nature of this assistance amounted to an unprecedented expansion of the Federal Reserve System’s traditional role as lender-of-last-resort to depository institutions,” the report stated.

Beyond the secret bailouts — to put the figure in perspective, consider that the output of the entire U.S. economy last year was well under $15 trillion — problems with conflicts of interest and no-bid contracts also featured prominently in the audit report.

One example highlighted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I – Vt.) was the CEO of JP Morgan Chase serving on the board of the New York Fed even as his firm scooped up almost $500 billion from the central bank. The bank was simultaneously helping to administer the Fed’s secret bailouts.

But JP Morgan Chase was hardly the only example. According to the analysis, more than 80 percent of the Fed’s largest contracts to manage the programs were awarded without bidding.

Many of the companies that received the contracts were also being showered with central-bank bailouts at the same time. And more than a few insiders were granted “waivers” to hold investments in companies that were being rescued by the Fed.

“As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world,” Sen. Sanders, a self-described socialist, said in a statement about the report. “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.”

The congressional investigation was triggered as part of the financial “reform” bill passed last year despite strong Fed opposition. After the original “audit the Fed” bill by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) passed in the House and became extraordinarily popular with Americans, Sen. Sanders helped ensure that only a watered-down version made it out of the Senate.

But even with what is known so far, critics are on the attack. Another report about the Fed is also due to be released in October of this year. And in recent months, other previously secret information about the Fed and its operations has come out following years of litigation.

All of the disclosures have fueled a growing anti-Fed movement aiming to eventually abolish the central bank – essentially a sort of banking cartel with private shareholders but some veneer of government oversight. Sen. Sanders suggested in his public statement, however, that the institution should merely be “reformed” to serve “working families” and not just Wall Street CEOs.

“No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president,” he noted in the statement, perhaps not realizing that the Fed, by its own admission, is not an agency of the government. “No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed’s board of directors or be employed by the Fed.”

The biggest single beneficiary of the Fed’s bailouts was Citigroup, which received about $2.5 trillion in assistance. Several other top banks in the United States, including Bank of America and Morgan Stanley also benefited to the tune of trillions of dollars. British bank Barclays PLC took close to $1 trillion.

The GAO report suggested that the Fed should implement better policies to deal with conflicts of interest. Its policies on awarding contracts, record keeping and risk management should also be revised, the agency recommended.

The Fed’s chief lawyer responded by saying that the central bank would “strongly consider” the advice. But for now — following bailouts to a bank owned by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, blatant and widespread market manipulation, wild money printing, and secret bailouts larger than the U.S. economy — analysts expect outrage to continue growing.

source: The New American

Fed Audited: $16 Trillion Loaned to Banks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUykpqlEvn0

If that $16 Trillion had been divided equally among every man, woman and child in the US (310 million of us) each of us would have received over $50,000. Our economy would be humming, banks & corporations would have gotten their share. On the other hand, if that $16 Trillion had been divided equally among all the people on this planet (not quite 7 billion) every person would have received more than $2200. That’s the scale of this crime against humanity.

The Fed loaned out trillions both internationally and domestically.

With 12 days left until the US reaches their borrowing limit and looks towards default, economists are trying to figure out how to avoid running into the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Here’s one answer: stop giving away money.

Results published today of the first-ever audit of the US Federal Reserve reveal that, between December 1 2008 and July 21, 2010, the Fed loaned out over $16 trillion to US and foreign financial institutes. That is nearly $2 trillion more than the entire GDP for the States last year, which topped out at around $14.5 trillion.

During that two year span that the audit takes into consideration, over $4 trillion was lent to banks in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium. Domestically, Citigroup was awarded with $2.5 trillion, Morgan Stanley with $2.04 trillion and Merrill Lunch with $1.9 trillion.

Additionally, the analysis carried out by the Government Accountability Office shows that the Fed outsourced many of its lending operations to the banks that served as a catalyst for the debt crisis.

Fittingly, the actual title of the GAO’s report to congressional addressees released today is “Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance.” In the introduction to the audit, the document explicitly calls out the Fed, noting that Ben Bernanke and company have several options to strengthen risk management practices for future crisis lending.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pushed for the audit, in a statement to The Hill today, writes that the data exposed in the findings shows “a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.”

Sanders adds that the Fed abused its powers by making unauthorized emergency loans and writes, “No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bail out a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president.”

Yesterday, Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser told Reuters that the Fed was working along with the Treasury in order to find out how to handle a default, should the US default on its debt next month. The New York Times responded by calling the discussions “doomsday plans.”

source: RT

GAO Audit Finds Fed Loaned Trillions Secretly to Banks

An audit on the Federal Reserve conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found secret loans made to large banks and companies around the world and conflicts of interest within the central banking system.

The GAO report says the Federal Reserve issued $16 trillion worth of loans to large private institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and General Electric during the financial crisis.

The mandatory evaluation was part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer ProtectionAct, which was passed one year ago. The report said that all federal emergency bailout money went to large banks and companies around the world instead of to smaller local banks and businesses. Notably, it loaned tax dollars to foreign banks and to large companies outside theUnited States ”from South Korea to Scotland, “according to the GAO report.

The Fed made its 2008 emergency loan decisions without input from Congress and citizens.

“This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else,” said Sanders in his statement. The senator proposed an amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act that required an audit of the Federal Reserve. Sanders, who is an Independent and strong critic of policies favoring corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens, said “the Federal Reserve must be reformed to serve the needs of working families, not just CEOs on Wall Street.”

A significant example of conflict of interest applied to the current head of the Federal Reserve. The GAO found that William Dudley was issued a waiver in 2008 to keep his shares in companies including those that received federal assistance, such as American International Group Inc. (AIG), while he was still the executive vice president of the New York Fed Markets Group.

Although New York Fed spokesman Jack Gutt said Dudley gave up his AIG shares shortly after succeeding Timothy Geithner as president of the New York Fed, the Fed has not made rules to eliminate potential conflicts of interest.

“No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed’s board of directors or be employed by the Fed,” said Sanders regarding the issue.

The GAO recommends that theinstitution should “strengthen policies for managing noncompetitive vendor selections, conflicts of interest, risks related to emergency lending, and documentation of emergency program decisions.”

Scott Alvarez, general counsel of the New York Fed, responded in a letter to GAO saying that the Fed will “give each recommendation serious attention” and that he believes “the process will further enhance the Federal Reserve’s capability to respond effectively in future crises.”

The GAO will conduct another investigation centering on conflicts of interest in the Fed on Oct 18.

source: Epoch Times

Federal Reserve audit highlights possible conflicts of interest

When the Federal Reserve launched an unprecedented series of interventions in the financial system in 2008, it often moved so quickly that the usual practices for preventing conflicts of interest couldn’t keep up, according to a new report.

An audit of the Fed’s emergency lending programs by the Government Accountability Office, ordered by the financial reform law passed last year and released Thursday, reports generally sound financial management by the central bank as it undertook programs that deployed trillions of dollars to backstop a faltering financial system. But it brings to light difficult issues that arose when the Fed undertook actions that its rules never envisioned.

For instance, William C. Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who was a senior official there in 2008, owned stock of American International Group before the Fed bailed out the giant insurance firm. The GAO report did not mention him by name, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who spearheaded the audit, identified Dudley as the unnamed official described in the report.

Lawyers at the New York Fed allowed Dudley to continue owning the shares while working on issues relating to the bailout. They concluded that for him to sell the shares immediately after the central bank bailed out the firm would be more ethically problematic than simply holding onto them and selling at a later date.

Dudley “held shares in these companies as part of his personal portfolio that predated his service at the New York Fed,” a spokesman for the central bank said. “A waiver was granted allowing him to hold these shares based in part on the judgement that had he sold these shares immediately after the interventions it would have the appearance of a conflict.”

The GAO report did not condemn the Fed’s actions, it simply illuminated them. Dudley has subsequently sold all the shares on dates agreed to with the bank’s ethics officers, the spokesman said.

The GAO also recommended that the Fed make clearer and more rigorous its policies for hiring independent contractors to manage investment programs. During the crisis, the New York Fed hired outside firms to manage many of its special lending programs, such as one designed to backstop the market for short-term corporate loans, without holding a normal bidding process for the contracts.

The report also found that lines of authority between the Fed’s Board of Governors in Washington and the 12 regional Fed banks around the country were sometimes muddled during the crisis. For example, it was not always clear where authority resided on questions of what collateral would be adequate for an emergency loan.

The report was the latest to detail aspects of the Fed’s actions during the financial crisis that were shrouded in mystery at the time. Another provision in last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulatory overhaul, also instigated by Sanders, required the disclosure of what individual banks and other entities received loans from the Fed.

“As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world,” Sanders said in a statement. “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.”

The Fed’s general counsel, Scott Alvarez, said in a letter responding to the GAO’s audit that officials will “strongly consider” the recommendations.

source: Washington Post Business

Just say NO!vember

Audit the Fed Update: It’s Over… For Now

Ron Paul’s attempt to audit the Federal Reserve, which had previously attracted 320 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, failed by a vote of 229-198.

All Republicans voted in favor of the measure with 23 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with Republicans. 114 co-sponsors of HR 1207, all Democrats, jumped ship and voted against Audit the Fed.

How They Voted

Watch Ron Paul’s Video Update

Audit the Fed Update: The Fed has won the battle but they will lose the war

Ron Paul discusses the latest in the efforts to get a full and complete audit of the Fed as well as the future of Fed transparency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IixLg4AtNI

Ron Paul’s attempt to audit the Federal Reserve, which was previously co-sponsored by 320 members of the House (HR 1207), failed by a vote of 229-198. All Republicans voted in favor of the measure with 23 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with Republicans. 114 co-sponsors of HR 1207, all Democrats, jumped ship and voted against Audit the Fed.

The GOP had offered the Fed audit as the minority’s last chance to alter the financial regulation bill. The bill does have an watered-down audit provision in the conference report, but it is limited to loans made by the Fed during the height of the economic crisis. Ron Paul’s bill would have allowed a total examination of the Fed’s books.

How they voted

KEY: Democrats, Republicans, HR 1207 Co-Sponsors

YEA! = Audit the Federal Reserve System (a private rockefeller/rothschild bank that started in 1913 that bankrupted the USA by 1933 & stole OUR gold, and which is paid INTEREST on this debt in the form of UN-Constitutional unapportioned federal INCOME TAXES on your WAGES that were traded even-up for LABOR)

NAY! Traitors:

Not Voting (cowards, but not traitors)

Bishop (UT)
Taylor
Wamp
Woolsey
Young (AK)

LEARN ABOUT THE FEDERAL RESERVE!

Look at the schedule here:
http://peaceoftheaction.org/housing-trans/

If you can’t make it, please donate whatever you can to help us with expenses for the 13 day protest.
http://peaceoftheaction.org/give/

also NEW “End The Fed” protest on July 3rd

SIZZLIN’ SUMMER – JULY PROTEST SCHEDULE
(Washington, DC – July 4th through July 17th, 2010)

JUST ADDED: July 3th (Saturday): END THE FED! DC Federal Reserve Building
http://www.infowars.com/we-are-change-plans-end-the-fed-protest-on-independence-day/

INDEPENDENCE FROM OIL DAY!!!
DOWNLOAD EVENT FLYER

No more wars for oil and natural resources! No more polluting our sea, air and landfills! BOYCOTT BP!!!

July 4th (Sunday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 1pm
– group to flyer, bullhorn in Lafayette Park and in front of the White House until dark
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

NO ILLEGAL/IMMORAL DRONES!!!
DOWNLOAD EVENT FLYER

For this week, Peace of the Action will primarily be targeting the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle display (educating the public about the horrific toll UAVs take) and drone manufacturers and lobbyists. (The Free Gaza/Free Palestine action has been inserted into this week because of the recent announcement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House.)

July 5th (Monday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to protest at White House against coming pre-emptive American/Israeli attack on Iran
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

July 6th (Tuesday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to (TBA) location for FREE PALESTINE! protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet
DOWNLOAD EVENT FLYER

July 7th (Wednesday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to Congress and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

July 8th (Thursday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to General Atomics and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

July 9th (Friday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and protest until 3pm
– possible special action TBA
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

WEEKEND:

July 10th (Saturday):
– ONE DC Block Party “ONE RIGHT TO LAND” (optional)
CLICK FOR EVENT INFORMATION PAGE

July 11th (Sunday):
– Day off! Rest and relaxation.

COUNTER-RECRUITMENT:
DOWNLOAD EVENT FLYER

For this week, we will be targeting recruiting centers and defense contractors and lobbyists—and we will do some special “lobbying” of our own on Capitol Hill. (The POTA DC Trial has been inserted into this week because of the recent scheduling by the court.)

July 12th (Monday):
– Peace of the Action DC Trial
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

July 13th (Tuesday):
– Peace of the Action DC Trial
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

or (trial may be one day or two. so we have two options this day.)

– meet in Lafayette Park at 9am
– group to move together to Military Recruiting Station (TBA) and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

July 14th (Wednesday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to Military Recruiting Station (TBA) and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

July 15th (Thursday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to War Profiteer (TBA) and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

July 16th (Friday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to flyer, bullhorn in LaFayette Park and in front of the White House
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet

WEEKEND:

July 17th (Saturday):
– POTA Retreat (location TBA 2pm to 5pm)

This will be an intense think tank session on the future of Peace of the Action and the future of anti-war protests in the U.S. With small numbers, where should our limited resources be focused? We have to dream up an entire movement based on very low numbers and very limited funds—bring your creative solutions and a positive attitude that a better world is possible!

– POTA Dinner/Rally (possible picnic Lafayette Park)

July 18th (Sunday):
– depart DC

(DAILY SCHEDULES OPEN TO CHANGE. STAY TUNED THROUGHOUT EVENT WEEKS FOR UPDATES.)

——————————————————————————————————————-

IMPORTANT INFO FOR SUMMER POTA

HOUSING (FLOOR SPACE & SHOWERS) WILL ONCE AGAIN BE PROVIDED AT ST. STEPHEN’S CHURCH (WIRELESS INTERNET IS AVAILABLE AT THE CHURCH)
1525 NEWTON ST, NW
(CORNER OF 16TH AND NEWTON)

BREAKFAST AND LUNCH ARE UP TO THE PARTICIPANT AND POTA WILL PROVIDE DINNER EACH NIGHT AT THE CHURCH (from FOOD NOT BOMBS!).

TRANSPORTATION TO THE PARK AND TO EVENTS IS UP TO EACH PARTICIPANT. BUSES AND/OR METRO (RAIL) STOPS ARE LOCATED CLOSE BY. WE WILL BE TRAVELING TO EVENTS AS A GROUP AND THE EVENTS SHOULD NOT BE TOO FAR FROM LAFAYETTE PARK.

POTA BELIEVES THAT CIVIL RESISTANCE IS THE CORE OF TRUE CHANGE, BUT ONLY IF THE NUMBERS ARE SUFFICIENT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. SO, SINCE OUR NUMBERS ARE SMALL, CIVIL RESISTANCE WILL MORE THAN LIKELY NOT BE A PART OF SUMMER POTA—EDUCATION AND MOVEMENT BUILDING WILL BE OUR MAIN FOCUS.

LAFAYETTE PARK WILL BE OUR MAIN CONVERGENCE SPACE FOR THE TWO WEEKS

EVENINGS WILL BE RESERVED FOR THE POTA CORE TEAM TO BLOG AND POST VIDEO AND DO OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS—IF YOU ARE A VIDEOGRAPHER OR BLOGGER, WE COULD USE YOUR HELP—USING ONLINE TOOLS WILL BE THE KEY TO MOVEMENT BUILDING

DRINK LOTS OF WATER—JULY IN DC IS HOT, HOT, HOT!

Bernie Sanders sold out to wall street. tell him we want OUR S.604 back, which we already have 32 cosponsors = 1/3 of the senate + 319 cosponsors for it’s sister bill HR1207 = 73% of the house backing us. Audit the Fed! and then End the Fed! that’s why JFK gave us Executive Order #11110

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuVBAMQ0j4A

Ron Paul: Audit the Fed! No More Bailouts!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVNvjQobulQ

Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had long worked together on their campaign for a full audit of the Federal Reserve, which emerged last year as H.R. 1207 and S. 604. Dr. Paul’s House version of the Audit the Fed bill had 319 cosponsors; Sanders’ Senate version, 32 cosponsors. Despite these bills’ massive popularity with a public grown increasingly suspicious of central banking, efforts to audit our central bank, the Federal Reserve, have been effectively thwarted for the time being.

Last-minute Senate maneuvering on Thursday May 6 resulted in a compromise measure that would require the Fed to disclose more details about its lending practices during the financial crisis, but would permit just a one-time audit of its loans and a one-time review of Fed governance. The compromise would also shield the Fed’s interest rate decision-making procedures from Goverment Accounting Office (GAO) scrutiny.

Dr. Paul, who has long advocated opening the Fed’s books to scrutiny to reveal its dealings with foreign banks as well as its domestic lending practices, expressed disappointment with the compromise in a sternly worded statement released Thursday evening.

Sanders had originally argued, “At a time when our entire financial system almost collapsed, we cannot let the Fed operate in secrecy any longer.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke disagreed. The Wall Street Journal reported his remark that the original measure would “seriously threaten monetary policy independence, increase inflation fears and market interest rates, and damage economic stability and job creation.”

Members of the Obama administration, among their number former Fed officials, backed the changes to Sanders amendment. These include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former chair of the New York Federal Reserve, and Paul Volcker, who was Alan Greenspan’s predecessor as Fed chair. They gave credit to Christopher Dodd (D-Ct.), Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, for pushing through the compromise bill. Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin stated that the compromise measure would allow for a comprehensive audit of the Fed’s operations “while preserving the existing protections of the Federal Reserve’s independence with respect to monetary policy.” It is just this independence which the Fed’s critics wish to challenge, as it leaves the Fed essentially accountable to no one except other elite bankers — some of them foreign.

On Thursday night, Ron Paul made an urgent appeal in a two and a half minute video (see below) urging Senators to reject the Sanders Amendment when it comes up for a vote, possibly as soon as next Tuesday (May 11). Dr. Paul stated,

I’m not a bit surprised that the Federal Reserve got to the Senate. I had expected Bernie Sanders to offer 604, which was the same as 1207, which is Audit the Fed bill, and at the last minute he switched it and watered it down, and really it adds nothing, It’s a possibility that it even makes the current conditions worse….

But as we speak — this is Thursday night — they are working on this on the Senate floor. And we need to get as many messages as possible to as many Senators you can think of, especially to Bernie Sanders’ office, that we don’t want this version….

But the only thing that would be fair to the American people after all this work and energy that we put into this is to have an up and down vote on what was our 1207 in the House which is 604 in the Senate….

Dr. Paul’s website adds that the compromise “exempts monetary policy decisions, discount window operations, and agreements with foreign central banks from [GAO] audit. This is of particular concern when several countries such as Greece, Portugal, and Spain are seeking IMF help in the midst of their financial crises, because American taxpayers provide fully 17% of all IMF funding.”

“Taxpayers are weary of bailing out privileged banks and corporations in the U.S.,” Dr. Paul added, “and we certainly cannot afford to bail out entire countries. The possibility of this happening behind a veil of Federal Reserve secrecy is not acceptable.”

“This compromise language represents a huge missed opportunity by Congress to finally make the Fed accountable for trillions of taxpayer dollars it administers. Full transparency, via a full GAO audit, is the only acceptable option. However, I am grateful to Senator Vitter for offering the original full audit language in an alternative amendment to the bill.”

The John Birch Society has issued a press release urging opposition to the compromise measure and restoration of the original language. Readers are invited to go to “Ron Paul Appeals for Help to Rescue His ‘Audit the Fed’ Bill in the Senate” and spreading the word on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Or they may contact their Senators directly to urge support for an amendment that would restore the original ‘Audit the Fed’ language and intent:  “As Ron Paul says in the video,” reads the JBS statement, “it’s vital and urgent that we do as much as we can to bombard the Senate with information that we the people deserve to have an up-or-down vote on Audit the Fed bill.”

View Ron Paul’s complete statement below. The vote on the compromise measure is expected to take place next Tuesday, May 11.

Source: The New American

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Federal Reserve will be required to identify the names of banks that could have collapsed if not for the central bank’s emergency lending, a federal appeals court said Friday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York ruled on Friday that the Fed needs to disclose documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by Bloomberg L.P. and other news organizations. “We are reviewing the decision and considering our options for reconsideration or appeal,” said Fed spokeswoman Barbara Hagenbaugh.

source: AuditTheFed.com

Robert P. Murphy – Only the Austrians Can Explain Depressions
Christopher Westley – Why the Fed Got Birthed
Peter G. Klein – Did Keynesian Economics Win the Battle of Ideas?
Douglas E. French – Failure and Prosperity
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. – Parallel Lives: Liberty or Power?
Joseph T. Salerno – The Macroeconomics of the Fed: Mainstream and Austrian
Mark Thornton – What Were They Saying in July 2007?
George Selgin – The Fed’s Dismal Record
Gary North – Heckle and Jekyll: How Murray Rothbard Got the Fed’s Story Right
Thomas E. Woods, Jr. – The Source and Workings of the Latest Crisis
Ron Paul – My Battle Against the Fed

Ron Paul’s HR1207 is one step closer to becoming law. The bill was attached to a horrible financial “reform” bill which calls for the creation of yet another government agency to regulate private industry. So of course Ron Paul voted against it on principle, despite the fact that it contains the “Audit the Fed” bill he’s worked so hard for.

Source: Liberty Maven

Ron Paul votes against his own amendment

Congressman Ron Paul (R Texas) is the last true statesman. Want proof, the Congressman and 2008 Presidential candidate fought more than twenty years to finally create an amendment to fully audit the Federal Reserve, which is the main cause of the present financial crisis.

The Audit the Fed bill was accepted as an amendment to a larger bill, the Wall Street Regulatory Overhaul. Even though the congressman’s bill was attached he could not in good faith vote for the larger legislation. Imagine a country full of men like that. Imagine just having 100 representatives like that.

The legislation will now go to the Senate for a vote. Ron Paul said “I have no clout in Congress, it was the people (grass roots) who made this happen.” A good guess would be that the Senate will try to take this amendment out. Reportedly, Senator’s are a little closer to those at the Fed than Congressman. It will be up to the people once again to make sure this amendment sticks if the larger bill is passed.

Voters should take notes from Dr. Paul on this issue. When your representatives have back bones like him liberty will flourish. People must become more involved and not fall for the left/right nonsense. There obviously is still room for honesty and integrity in Washington but it will be up to you to make it happen.

As you can see auditing the Federal Reserve is not an easy task. Some say they are more powerful than the President since they control the money supply. It’s reported that John F. Kennedy tried to abolish this powerful organization before being assassinated. Auditing it has been hard enough.

Source: Examiner.com

House Passes Wall Street Reform Bill With Zero GOP Votes

In a close vote, the House of Representatives Friday afternoon passed a financial reform bill intended to re-regulate Wall Street and increase protections for Main Street.

The bill, passed in a 223-202 vote, calls for the creation of a new federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers that would police consumer credit products like mortgages and credit cards. It also establishes new rules for the trading of derivatives and increases the transparency of the credit-rating process — two previously under-regulated parts of the economy that played a large role in last year’s economic collapse.

Not a single Republican voted for the bill. Twenty-seven Democrats broke with the rest of their party to vote against it.

The measure includes language, introduced in committee by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), that would authorize an expansive audit of the Federal Reserve, a landmark achievement for critics of the central bank’s secretive operations.

The bill also requires systemically important banks to pay into a fund that would be used to break them up and sell them off if they go bankrupt. Republicans bitterly and inaccurately referred to it as a “bailout fund,” telegraphing a critique that will undoubtedly re-emerge during the 2010 midterm elections.

“Today is an important milestone in reversing the decades-long stranglehold Wall Street and big banks have had over our economy. But it is just the first step,” said Service Employees International Union Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger. “Despite the millions Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce spent fighting the demands of the American people and the dozens of visits by big bank CEOs to strong-arm members of Congress, our leaders found the political will and courage to pass the most historic financial reform legislation in nearly 80 years.”

The fight to fundamentally reform financial regulations began soon after President Barack Obama took office. Public zeal, though, was tempered on Capitol Hill by bankers and other Wall Street titans, who united to fight against the kind of reform advocated by consumers, union groups, and academics.

The bill disappointed some consumer groups, who pledged to work to make it stronger as it moves to the Senate.

“The bill does very little to address industry structure,” the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said in a statement. “The biggest banks are now bigger than they were before the crisis.”

Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, hailed the bill’s creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but worried it goes too far in allowing federal regulators to preempt their state compatriots.

“The bill would provide consumers with significant protections from the industry practices that dismantled our economy and those of countries around the world,” he said. “We commend the House for this vote to protect families and small business from unfair, unsafe financial practices. However, we remain concerned that the bill allows the same federal banking regulators whose inaction led to the current crisis to continue to ignore state law. That must be fixed as the legislation moves forward.”

Despite the advocacy by financial luminaries like former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the bill does nothing to break up big banks or address the mixing of commercial and investment banking by giant firms like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, praised the part of the bill dealing with credit rating agencies — with a caveat, though.

“If you accept the whole business model as a given, the rest of it is strong,” she said, referring to the fact that the agencies are paid by bond issuers to rate their products, creating an inherent conflict of interest.

Specifically, the bill subjects the credit rating agencies to increased liability, allowing for aggrieved investors to sue. Also, thanks to Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a provision was added mandating that the agencies owe a duty of care to investors, rather than just to the bond issuers that pay them, she said.

The bill takes a stab at regulating derivatives, but key reforms were either ignored or voted down. An amendment by Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) calling for increased transparency in trading, which was backed by a coalition of pro-reform advocates, was voted down 330-98.

Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank offered another amendment regarding derivatives that would have beefed up the powers of federal regulators, who have long lacked critical authority to initiate meaningful regulation. That, too, died.

A third amendment would have banned those derivatives that are, in essence, used by big financial firms to place bets upon bets upon bets, like the kind pioneered by AIG that helped crash the financial system last year. It also was voted down.

“Basically, the financial houses and the big banks are working [these amendments] real hard,” Stupak said. “Wall Street’s been working hard. We’ve been tripping over them all week. They’ve won this round.”

Public Citizen offered this explanation:

It’s no mystery why this legislation is not stronger. Wall Street spent $5 billion in political investments in the decade before the financial crisis to obtain deregulation and non-enforcement of existing rules.

Despite Wall Street having crashed the economy, nothing has changed on Capitol Hill. Wall Street continues to invest heavily in politics and wield enormous influence. More than 900 former federal employees, including 70 former members of Congress, are working as lobbyists for the financial services sector this year. Wall Street has spent more than $40 million on campaign contributions since November 2008.

“It was the single most important they needed to get right if they wanted to protect the system from future crises, and I don’t think they got it right,” Roper said.

The bill also addressed investor protection, increasing it in some areas but weakening it in others. Shareholders will now be able to hold non-binding votes on executive compensation — a big win for investor groups. But the bill also includes a provision that changes current law by exempting about half of all publicly-traded companies from having to get audits of their internal controls. Fraud will be harder to catch, investor groups argue.

The House also voted to kill what many experts, consumer advocates and economists believe to be the best — and perhaps the only — way to stem the rising tide of foreclosures: a provision that would have allowed judges to cut the principal for struggling homeowners in bankruptcy.

Belying their expressions of outrage towards banks and sympathy for struggling homeowners, enough Democrats joined Republicans to kill the amendment offered by Democrats John Conyers of Michigan and Jim Marshall of Georgia, by a 241-188 vote.

Bankruptcy courts may reduce several forms of debt for distressed borrowers, but not the mortgage on a primary residence. Judges can, however, alter loan terms on vacation homes and cars, for example.

In March, the House passed a bill that was “substantively identical” to today’s amendment, according to a summary of the amendment provided by the chamber’s Rules Committee. The Senate, however, voted it down, leading Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a longtime advocate for homeowners, to conclude that banks “frankly own the place.”

“The financial industry has so much invested in political influence, in lobbying, in campaign contributions, into having a local network through the local banks and the credit unions,” said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.). “It’s just very hard to go up against that based upon a strong public policy objective.”

Backers of the measure thought it had a reasonable chance of passage, since, after all, it had already passed, and the foreclosure crisis has only gotten worse. About one in seven homeowners with a mortgage are either delinquent or in foreclosure. The passage of time, however, gave banks a chance to work the halls.

“We got a vote for it earlier this year, but it took a huge effort. There was none of that effort this time. I think that leadership has been working other issues in the bill, but not that one. And there’s enormous opposition to it,” said Miller.

One in four homeowners with a mortgage are “underwater,” meaning they owe more on the home than it’s worth. The administration’s $75 billion foreclosure-prevention effort does virtually nothing to help those homeowners, consumer advocates and economists argue.

Furthermore, since the program’s launch in March, less than 32,000 troubled homeowners have received permanent relief through the government’s mortgage modification plan. It’s supposed to help three to four million homeowners avoid foreclosure.

“You would think that would be a strong argument for doing something about it,” Miller said. “And with the continued foreclosure rate and the effect that’s having on home values and the effect they’re having on each other, being such a downward force on our economy. But there’s just a united front of opposition by the financial industry. If some members are playing it by thinking, well, I’ll give them this vote but then I’ll vote for the CFPA, I guess I can see that calculation.”

Marshall pinned some of the blame on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who had been cool to the idea last spring.

“The leadership here in the House is a big friend to this bill. The White House, well, the Treasury Secretary made some comments earlier this year that I thought were unfortunate. Other than Geithner’s comments, I haven’t really heard anything else from the White House. Obviously it’s not on their priority list, among the many things they don’t have much of an opinion about. Though Geithner did say something, and I wish I could recall, he said something earlier this year that was chilling. Not that he said it was a bad idea, but it certainly wasn’t an endorsement,” said Marshall.

Candidate Obama supported the idea of allowing judges to modify mortgages in bankruptcy en route to the White House. He even expressed public support in February when outlining his plan to stem foreclosures. But it wasn’t in his detailed plan released the next month. Since then, the White House has largely been silent.

President Obama cheered the House action Friday. “This legislation brings us another important step closer to necessary, comprehensive financial reform that will create clear rules of the road, consistent and systematic enforcement of those rules, and a stronger, more stable financial system with better protections for consumers and investors,” he said in a statement.

But the loopholes in the bill and the reforms that were voted down revealed something else to Roper — an apparent deep-seated hostility to government regulation.

Time and time again, Roper noticed various reform proposals killed on the specious claim that they would kill jobs. Looking beyond today’s vote, there are deep, structural roadblocks to fundamental reform, she said.

“Even as they’re trying to cure the regulatory failures that led to the current crisis, they’re setting us up for future crises,” she said. “It’s a philosophy and attitude to regulation that suggests that as soon as the spotlight is off they will be back to attacking regulation as too costly.”

The vote, she said, reveals “that the attitude, the underlying problem, has not changed, and will come back to haunt us in the future.”

“It’s hard to be all that enthusiastic when you know that nothing has changed,” she said.

Source: Huffington Post

House Financial Services Committee approved Ron Paul “Audit the Fed” * House Attacks Fed * Call for Geithner to Quit *

Critical Vote on Audit the Fed!

Congressman Paul will offer an amendment in Committee restoring an audit of the Fed’s entire $2 trillion balance sheet, but we have received word that some of the Democrat members may be waffling on their support for his amendment.

For example, Watt’s amendment prevents the GAO from auditing or reviewing decisions to authorize, modify, extend, or terminate loans or liquidity facilities.

Fed balance sheet can be audited, panel says

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – A key congressional committee approved legislation on Thursday that would allow for government audits of Federal Reserve monetary policy as well as how much the central bank has lent and will lend to specific banks in response to the financial crisis, despite major opposition from the central bank. The measure, introduced by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has the support of 309 members of Congress.

House Attacks Fed, Treasury

Panel Votes for Tighter Political Rein on Central Bank; Some Call for Geithner to Quit

WASHINGTON — Political frustration over the rescue of Wall Street and high unemployment erupted in Congress Thursday, with one committee threatening to impose tighter scrutiny on the Federal Reserve and another excoriating Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The House Financial Services Committee voted, 43-26, to approve a measure sponsored by Texas Republican Ron Paul, vociferously opposed by the Fed, that would direct the congressional Government Accountability Office to expand its audits of the Fed to include decisions about interest rates and lending to individual banks. The Fed says the provision threatens its ability to make monetary policy without political interference.

Treasury chief Geithner faced a House Republican who told him, ‘The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job.’ He shot back: ‘What I can’t take responsibility is for the legacy of crises you’ve bequeathed this country.’

The vote was the latest blow to the central bank, which has been become a lightning rod for politicians responding to popular anger that Wall Street was bailed out while the public was not. The Fed faces a stinging backlash from legislators from both parties who argue that has too much power and too little oversight. On Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee began debating legislation that would largely remove the Fed from bank supervision over the objections of both the Fed and the Obama administration.

The Paul-Grayson Amendment
by Ron Paul and Alan Grayson

“It is encouraging to see the issue of Federal Reserve transparency receiving so much attention during this current markup. Today we plan to offer an amendment to the Financial Stability Improvement Act that expands on the many extant proposals to enhance Federal Reserve transparency. Our amendment is based on HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which has broad bipartisan and grassroots support. The bill is cosponsored by 309 Members of Congress, including all Financial Services Committee Republicans and 13 Financial Services Committee Democrats.

The amendment removes restrictions on GAO audits of the Federal Reserve, as HR 1207 does, but makes a few changes to take into account some of the concerns that the Fed has made known in public testimony.

Unlike proposals that target the Fed’s 13(3) facilities, the Paul/Grayson amendment opens up the entire $2 trillion Federal Reserve balance sheet to a GAO audit.

Mr. bernanke, do THEY have OUR gold? or did THEY sell it to Europeans for $35/oz within years of being CONFISCATED from the American people at $25/oz after THEY bankrupted us in 1933?

Learn more about the corrupt “Federal Reserve System”:
http://americanbuilt.us/videos/federal-reserve-system.shtml

End The Fed, has served as a rallying point for supporters of Paul’s bill, H.R. 1207 The Federal Reserve Transparency Act, meant to shed light on the practices of the nation’s central bank. Last week, the House Financial Services Committee held hearings on bringing more transparency to the Fed, this development came after increased support and a super-majority sponsorship of the bill in Congress.

The success of Congressman Paul’s book and the ‘Audit The Fed’ movement has given him a greater platform to spread his message of sound money and economic stability to the public, which seems to be growing ever more receptive since the economic crisis of last year.

The episode will air at 11:00 pm EST, and again Wednesday at 7:00 pm EST.

Republican U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul will share the stage at a student town hall this month.

The event, hosted by Young Americans for Liberty, will be held Sept. 25 at Northrop Auditorium on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

Organizers said Bachmann and Paul will discuss “monetary reform, limited government and free market economics” and that their appearance is designed to counter “President Obama’s health care proposal, bailout mania and the rapid rise of government control and spending.”

Bachmann, who is in her second term representing Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District, has attained a national profile as a conservative spokeswoman as a result of her regular appearances on cable television.

Paul, of Texas, attained a similar profile last year during his run for the Republican presidential nomination. Although he failed to attract a substantial number of votes, he attained surprising success in fundraising and grass-roots organizing.

The event is sponsored by the Minnesota Campaign for Liberty, Republican Party of Minnesota, Minneapolis City Republican Committee, College Republicans and Students for a Conservative Voice.

BOB VON STERNBERG

Video coverage of Congressman Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann speaking to students at University of Minnesota

Dr. Ron Paul’s Speech 10/25/2009 in Minneapolis

Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann Answer Student’s Questions

At the U, Paul and Bachmann question Washington’s corruption

In a Friday speech, the two rallied for new monetary policies and smaller government.

Addressing issues of economic responsibility and big government, Reps. Ron Paul, R-Texas and Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. spoke at a student town hall meeting in Northrop Auditorium Friday night to an audience of more than 600 people.

Bachmann and Paul highlighted the war on drugs, income tax and the government’s interference with the free market as policies that need to be changed in the United States.

The date of the speech coincided with the introduction of a bill Paul sponsored in the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.

The bill, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act , calls for an audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve to be completed by the end of 2010.

With wide-spread support including 271 co-sponsors, the bill calls for an end to the secrecy surrounding the acts of the Federal Reserve.

“Today, Ron Paul achieved a 26-year dream,” Bachmann said.

Both Bachmann and Paul blamed the Federal Reserve for the collapse of the dollar, citing its ability to print money without accountability.

“You can’t just print dollars,” Paul said.

Conservative groups, including Young Americans for Liberty and the College Republicans sponsored the event.

Minnesota College Republicans Chairman Abdul Magba-Kamara said Minnesota’s 5th and 6th Congressional districts have a strong Ron Paul following.

Chris Huxtable , president of Young Americans for Liberty — known as Students for Ron Paul during his 2008 presidential campaign — emphasized the importance of presenting opposing views on a campus like the University of Minnesota, which he views as liberal.

“It’s good to have rallies and events like this because they give people energy and something to look forward to,” he said. “If times seem dark, there is a hope for freedom and Ron Paul is the movement.”

Paul said the federal government does not have the right to tax a person’s income or dictate the way in which people live their private lives. He said it is the citizens’ duty to protect themselves from big government.

“The good patriot sticks with the people and questions the government,” Paul said.

He addressed the government’s use of fear to push its own agenda, pointing at the PATRIOT Act , the recent bailout and the wars in the Middle East.

Bachmann said today’s economic issues will be handed to the next generation to fix.

Following the speeches, which were met with both positive and negative outbursts from the crowd, there was a question and answer period. Most questions centered on the current health care reform debate.

Bachmann and Paul stated succinctly their belief that health care is not a right.

Karen Zaklika , 61, of St. Paul said she attended the event to show support for a public health care option. She said she would have liked to hear more of their stances.

Zach Holmquist , a sophomore English major, said the speakers did not need to talk more about the subject because that statement summed it up.

When Bachmann posed a question to the audience about whether they wanted health care under a system like those in the United Kingdom or the Soviet Union , those in the audience who, like Zaklika, support universal health care shouted, “Yes!”

Bachmann mentioned the Soviet Union’s health care system several times Friday in present tense — the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s.

Despite naysayers, the event raised excitement in furthering a belief in individual freedom. Organizers said this will help gain more support for Ron Paul.

“It’s important that we understand that we have not gained a lot in Washington yet,” Paul said. “We have a long way to go, but we’re making progress.”

BY ANISSA STOCKS & TARYN WOBBEMA

we are attempting to abolish the federal reserve (per JFK policy) because they’re the reason why our “FIAT” paper dollars are only worth 3 cents. THEY recently gave $500,000,000,000 to foreign banks – that’s their profits from ripping off the American dollar. THEY gave New Zealand the equivalent of $3000 PER PERSON – imagine if that money was never stolen from Americans in the first place = no imaginary financial crisis.

The House Committee on Financial Services held its first major hearing on H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, today. H.R. 1207, originally introduced by Ron Paul (R-Texas), now has 295 cosponsors in the House and a great deal of public support. (The bill’s Senate equivalent, S.604, called the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, has 28 cosponsors.)

Speaking on behalf of the Federal Reserve was Scott G. Alvarez, General Counsel, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Speaking for H.R. 1207 was Thomas E. Woods, Jr., author and economist for the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Both made available some prepared testimony.

In his statement Alvarez argued that the Fed already receives an independent audit by an “independent public accounting firm that is selected and retained by the Board’s Inspector General annually [and] audits the financial statements for the Federal Reserve System, including the Reserve Banks. The Federal Reserve makes these audited financial statements available to the public and submits them to Congress with detailed annual reports of our activities.”

He added that “all of our supervisory and regulatory functions are subject to audit by the GAO to the same extent as the supervisory and regulatory functions of the other federal banking agencies.”

Alvarez conceded that “two highly sensitive areas” have been excluded by Congress from GAO review: “one is monetary policy deliberations, decisions, and actions … and the other is Federal Reserve transactions for or with foreign central banks, foreign governments, and public international financing organizations.” These, he said, are “to ensure that the Federal Reserve could ‘independently conduct the Nation’s monetary policy’.… Thus, the Congress has sought to maintain an independent monetary policy not because it benefits the Federal Reserve, but because of the important public benefit it provides.”

He then contended that H.R. 1207 would remove these exceptions and lead to “a substantial erosion of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy independence.” This would “undermine public and investor confidence in monetary policy,” which would in turn “increase inflation fears and market interest rates and, ultimately, damage economic stability and job creation.”

Thomas Woods’ remarks set out to refute these and other common arguments against H.R. 1207. Woods argued that the Fed’s independence is a myth. “The bill is not designed to empower politicians to increase the money supply, choose interest-rate targets, or adopt any of the Fed’s central planning apparatus, all of which is better left to the free market than to the Fed or Congress.” Moreover, “ with its chairman up for reappointment by the president every four years…. Fed chairmen have been known to ingratiate themselves into the president’s favor close to election time by means of loose monetary policy and the false (and temporary) prosperity it brings about.”

Woods intimated that the Fed is “independent” in ways that ought to alarm a free people who base their economic lives on an assumption that their money is sound: “The Fed may reward favored friends and constituencies with trillions of dollars in various kinds of assistance, while keeping the public completely in the dark. If that is the independence we are talking about, no self-respecting American would hesitate for a moment to challenge it.”

He argued further that monetary policy is already politicized and favors the well-connected: “Most Americans, not unreasonably, seem convinced of another thesis: that Goldman Sachs, for instance, might be just a little bit more politically well connected than the rest of us.”

Finally, if the Fed is already adequately audited, then “why is the Fed in panic mode over this bill? It is the broad areas these audits exclude that the American public is increasingly interested in investigating, and these are the gaps that H.R. 1207 seeks to fill.”

Woods asked “if our monetary system were really as strong, robust, and beyond criticism as its cheerleaders claim, why does it need to rely so heavily on public ignorance? How can it be a sound banking system that depends on keeping the public in the dark about the condition of its financial institutions?”

In closing, he turned on its head a remark that is often made by those of an authoritarian stripe who believe we should trust our political and financial overlords in all things, including when we believe our rights and privacy are being violated: “The Fed should take to heart the words of consolation the American people are given whenever a new government surveillance program is uncovered: if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”

From an economic standpoint, the Federal Reserve does plenty that can be considered wrong to the point of irrational: creating hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air, and thus devaluing our currency. Our dollars have lost between 97 and 98 percent of their value since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913 — following the now well-documented, but at the time highly secretive, meeting of powerful banking elites that designed the legislation to create the Fed at their enclave on Jekyll Island, Georgia.

Some might wonder why criticisms of the Fed are limited to just a few mostly solitary economics voices, such as Ron Paul, who are considered not “real” economists by the majority of those in that profession. A recent Huffington Post inquiry revealed the answer to this: for all practical purposes, the Fed owns the economics profession in the United States. You do not get to be an economics professor at a major university if you do not publish in one of the major journals of the field such as the Journal of Monetary Economics. These journals’ editorial boards have a significant fraction of members on the Fed payroll! This ensures that critics of the Federal Reserve will not be published, not receive tenure at major universities, and therefore not be in a position to educate the next generation of economists.

Such revelations help us understand why almost no one in the economics profession anticipated the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression — which was predicted by Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and others of the “contrarian” orbit who have subsisted outside of the economics “mainstream.”

Part of taking back our country from the elites necessarily includes taking back the economics profession. Subjecting the Federal Reserve to a full audit is a step toward what would really be desirable, which is to do what Andrew Jackson did to the Second Bank of the United States: close it down, as an institution both unnecessary and destructive of the economic lives of a free people.

Source JBS.org: Hearings Held on Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” Bill

Look Who’s Testifying During Ron Paul’s HR1207 Hearing Tomorrow

Ron Paul is bringing a friend to Washington DC tomorrow to testify during the hearing on Paul’s HR.1207. Thomas Woods, author of “Meltdown“, is on the list of witnesses. The only other currently listed witness is Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez. What an interesting combination this is going to be.

Alvarez is quoted in the Wall Street Journal today (from his prepared remarks):

Fed General Counsel Scott Alvarez, in testimony prepared for a Friday hearing, said legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives giving the Government Accountability Office greater leeway to examine the central bank could have a detrimental effect.

“These concerns likely would increase inflation fears and market interest rates and, ultimately, damage economic stability and job creation,” Alvarez said in the prepared remarks for the House Financial Services Committee hearing.

If I were on the Financial Services Committee I’d suggest to Alvarez that the Fed itself is the cause of economic instability and a full GAO audit will neither help nor hinder its “ability” to continue being the primary cause of economic instability. I’m sure Ron Paul and Tom Woods won’t hesitate to make this point.

It’s rare occasion when I can say this, but… this Financial Services Committee hearing is going to be fun.

Click here to learn more about the Federal Reserve

What would a world without the Fed look like?

You’d go back to the day that if you wanted to borrow money to build a house, somebody would’ve had to save some money. You wouldn’t have zero savings and all the credit in the world. That’s just a total distortion of capitalism. Capital comes from savings. The part you don’t use for everyday living which you have left over, you reinvest and you save or you loan it out. We were living with something absolutely bizarre that had nothing to do with capitalism. We had no savings whatsoever yet there was all the credit in the world.

How would an audit lead to ending the Fed?

It’s a stepping stone. I think what’s going to lead to the next step is the destruction of the dollar, just like economic events moved further ahead than my legislative process. I wasn’t getting anywhere. But the economic events demanded that we look into it. So even if this bill passes and we have more information and we’re talking about monetary policy reform, I don’t think that’s the way this system is going to be ended. I think it’ll be ended when it’s a total failure and then it’ll have to be replaced by something. It could be replaced with a more authoritarian government, a more socialistic government.

Do you think the Fed will be abolished during your career?

I always thought the day would come… This economy is going to get worse and this dollar is going to get a lot worse. It’ll take care of itself. My real goal is educating people to the nature of money so that when this system fails, that they’ll know what to do and not just say ‘Well, we need a better manager.’

Economic insight and analysis from The Wall Street Journal

LONDON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve has made $14 billion in profits on loans made in the last two years, The Financial Times reported on Monday, citing officials close to the matter.

The U.S. central bank also earned about $19 billion from interest and fees charged to institutions that tapped liquidity facilities during the global financial crisis, the report said.

The question I have for the Fed is, how about giving that money back?

They took Trillion’s of the taxpayers dollars to fix this “crisis” and now is the time for them to either give it back, or use it to pay down the national debt. 

The time is critical now for the Federal Reserve to be audited. Look up H.R. 1207, the bill to audit the fed, and urge your Representatives to support this legislation.

http://www.conservativeforchange.com/2009/08/federal-reserve-made-14-billion-on.html

In the post-meltdown world, it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve.

Most people think of the Fed as an indispensable institution without which the country’s economy could not properly function. But in END THE FED, Ron Pauldraws on American history, economics, and fascinating stories from his own long political life to argue that the Fed is both corrupt and unconstitutional. It is inflating currency today at nearly a Weimar or Zimbabwe level, a practice that threatens to put us into an inflationary depression where $100 bills are worthless.

What most people don’t realize is that the Fed — created by the Morgans and Rockefellers at a private club off the coast of Georgia — is actually working against their own personal interests. Congressman Paul’s urgent appeal to all citizens and officials tells us where we went wrong and what we need to do fix America’s economic policy for future generations.

http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-08-31/end-the-fed-by-ron-paul/

Frank said he and Paul are working to make sure the audit does not appear as if it would influence policy.

“We don’t want to have the audit appear as if it is influencing monetary policy, because that would be inflationary,” Frank said.

He said the audit would make public a list of what the Federal Reserve “buys and sells” but that such information would be released several months after the fact, so as not to affect the markets.

Paul tried to push a similar bill back in 1983, but it died. He suggested earlier in the year that the renewed concern about excessive federal spending and loose monetary policy is driving the wave of support to his proposal this time around.

“I think it’s the financial crisis obviously that’s drawing so much attention to it, and people want to know more about the Federal Reserve,” Paul told FOXNews.com, warning about the consequences of continuing to give the body more authority. “If they give them a lot more power and there’s no more transparency, that’ll be a disaster. ”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/30/frank-says-house-likely-approve-audit-federal-reserve/

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the most unabashed liberals in the U.S. House of Representatives, told a Massachusetts town hall recently that Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve will clear his chamber by October.

Over half of the House members, most of them Republican, have signed on to the bill, H.R. 1207.
Though Frank disagrees — as many proponents of the bill contend — that the Fed is the cause of the U.S. dollar’s shrinking value, he told a Massachusetts audience that he’s been a proponent of greater transparency at the nation’s central bank for some time.

“Here’s what we plan to do: I want to restrict the powers of the Federal Reserve in a number of ways,” he said. “First of all, they will be the major losers of power if we’re successful, as I believe we will be, setting up that, uh, financial product protection committee.”

The committee Frank mentioned was proposed by President Barack Obama during the campaign, as a way of protecting consumers. It was formally presented to Congress in the President’s financial regulatory reform white papers in July, noted law firm Wiley Rein LLP.

“The Federal Reserve is now charged with protecting consumers,” continued Frank. “They were supposed to do sub-prime mortgage restricted … Congress in 1994 gave the Federal Reserve the power to adopt rules to ban bad sub-prime mortgages. … They have the power to ban credit card abuses. They have the power to do most of it. They, under Greenspan, did nothing.

“Under Bernanke, they started to do things, but only after Congress started, when I became chairman of the [House Financial Services Committee], we began to act on these things: Sub-prime mortgages, credit cards, overdraft … And after we started, the Fed did. So, that’s why one of the reasons why in the new consumer protection agency we will take away from the Federal Reserve the power to do consumer protection.”

Frank added that Congress will reverse an action by the Democratic Congress of 1932 that gives the Fed authority to lend money at will.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/rep-frank-house-will-pass-ron-paul’s-‘audit-the-fed’-bill-this-year.html

The Federal Reserve, the unelected central bank of the U.S., enjoys a monopoly over the flow of our nation’s money and credit but has never been completely transparent and accountable to Congress since its creation in 1913.

Over its nearly 100 year history, the Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar while Congress has kept its hands off and its eyes closed.  Since 1913, the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy.

During the current economic crisis, Congress, the Treasury, and the Fed have put us on the hook for over $12 trillion in bailouts and loans.  This is in addition to our almost $12 trillion national debt.  When testifying before Congress, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has refused to disclose which institutions have received trillions of dollars in these bailouts and loans or to give our representatives details about what deals are being made with foreign banks.

Although the Fed is currently audited by outside agencies, these audits are not thorough and do not include monetary policy decisions or agreements with foreign central banks and governments.

The crucial issue of Federal Reserve transparency requires an analysis of 31 USC 714, the section of US Code which establishes that the Federal Reserve may be audited by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), but which simultaneously severely restricts what the GAO may in fact audit. Essentially, the GAO is only allowed to audit check-processing, currency storage and shipments, and some regulatory and bank examination functions, etc. The most important matters, which directly affect the strength of the dollar and the health of the financial system, are immune from oversight.

An Open Letter to the
US House of Representatives

Whereas: Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the U.S. Treasury have put the American taxpayer on the hook for over $12 trillion in bailouts and loans; and

Whereas: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently refused to tell Congress who has received trillions in these funds from the Federal Reserve; and

Whereas: Allowing the Fed to operate our nation’s monetary system in almost complete secrecy leads to abuse, inflation, and a lower quality of life for every American; and

Whereas: HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, and S 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, would require a full audit of the Fed for the first time in its history and would provide answers to the American people about how our money is being spent;

Therefore: It’s time to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to Congress and the American People. I urge you to do everything in your power to pass the Audit the Fed bill!

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 Reserve. Notable co-sponsors include Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Jim DeMint (R-SC).

The legislation, titled the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009” would allow the Comptroller General of the United States to do a financial audit of the Federal Reserve. After the audit is complete, the Comptroller General would be required to report his or her findings to Congress.

Although the Federal Reserve is not technically a government agency, it’s a staple of the United States’ current economic system and was created through congressional legislation. A recent survey from Rasmussen reports found that a super-majority of Americans think that it might be time to take a second look as to whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue to operate without accountability.

The survey found that 75% of Americans now support an audit of the nation’s central bank, and only 9% of Americans opposed an audit.

http://www.americanbankingnews.com/2009/08/26/three-out-of-four-americans-support-a-federal-reserve-audit/

“I’ll be doing another town hall up in the St. Cloud area in September and we’ll do that on monetary policy. Ron Paul is going to come in and we are going to host something on monetary policy,” Bachmann said.

Bachmann is a convert to the Ron Paul movement, sometimes attending the congressman’s weekly lunches.

“I especially want to speak to the 19-20 year olds so they can know what there future will be under this level of debt accumulation and spending,” she added about the forum. “They need to know their future. And so I’m bringing him in so we can have a discussion on monetary policy.”

http://minnesotaindependent.com/42610/bachmann-to-host-town-hall-with-rep-ron-paul

The 218th cosponsor was Dennis Kucinich (OH-10), and the bill has since received its 242nd cosponsor.

“The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for HR 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy,” said Congressman Paul. “I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure.”

Hearings on Federal Reserve transparency are expected within the next month, as part of the Financial Services Committee’s series of hearings on regulatory reform.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx14_paul/audit.shtml

A Republican Congressman Mark Kirk, who is back from visiting with Chinese officials, had this to say:

“We heard across the board — in private — substantial, continuing and rising concern,” Representative Mark Kirk said after a trip to China that included talks with government officials and central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan.

“It’s clear that China would like to diversify from its dollar investments,” the lawmaker said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.

http://www.conservativeforchange.com/2009/06/china-fears-us-debt-and-dollar.html

Ron Paul’s Plan To Kill the Fed