First ever Fed audit now has majority support in House

[HalfLotus]

HR 1207 proposes a full financial audit of the Fed and has 224 co-sponsors in House currently.

First ever Fed audit in 95 years, say it ain't so!

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/90775

The Senate Banking Committee and party leadership will no doubt be under huge pressure to crush the bill via threat of marshal law and alien landings if the Feds books are subjected to scrutiny.

[Darius871]

alien landings

Edit: oh I forgot, you're that guy.

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Ok, so now not only do private taxpayers get audits, but so does the Government. This is a good step.

But

Would have been nice if we had been auditing businesses these past tax-free years. Thanks a lot, Reagan Bush Clinton Bush Obama!

[HalfLotus]

the Government.

The Fed is privately owned.

edit: I don't subscribe to alien stuff, was just a joke.

[-Jrabbit]

Then our secret remains safe.

[Darius871]

the Government.

The Fed is privately owned.

No, it's an independent entity created by Congress and the President, led by a board appointed by the President (with Senate approval) to limited terms, exercising regulatory authority specifically delegated by Congress and the President, all of which can be modified or limited by a whim of Congress or federal courts, or entirely abolished by a whim of Congress or the federal courts. These characteristics take the Fed so far into the fold of "government" that the mere fact of member banks' being "shareholders" doesn't take it out in my book. If you think the shareholder banks wield too much influence over Fed policymaking, that might be a legitimate argument, but that would be the fault of lax Congressional oversight and by extension of the voting public, not the Fed system in itself.

Suppose for instance that tomorrow a bill is passed that transforms the SEC, FTC, CFTC, FCC, NLRB, SBA, FERC, or other independent regulatory agency (as distinguished from executive agencies like DOJ) into a non-profit entity that supports its own independent budget through user fees paid by the businesses that it regulates (in exchange for shares of its "stock"), but Congress and the federal courts still reserve the constitutional right to delineate the contours of its delegated regulatory authority or abolish it altogether. Does that change really make it cease to be a "government" entity? You'd rather throw it in the same bucket as Ford and McDonald's?

[HalfLotus]

Certainly it is difficult to tell the difference between government and private businesses these days.

[Kuciwalker]

No, not really.

[HalfLotus]

the top 4 banks Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wachovia, would control roughly 50% of the stock of the Federal Reserve Bank, and the top 10 banks, including Wells Fargo, HSBC, and the Bank of New York, would control over 68% of the stock

http://libertymaven.com/2009/03/01/the-federal-reserve-replies-on-its-stock-ownership-and-treasury-purchases/4580/

Looks pretty private to me.

Regardless of who created or 'oversees' the Fed it is, in fact, privately owned.

[Zkribbler]

Welcome to the real world. On this planet, the Fed was created by an Act of Congress. It is controlled by a Board, the members of which are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

No one "owns" the Fed.

[Darius871]

http://libertymaven.com/2009/03/01/t...urchases/4580/

Looks pretty private to me.

Regardless of who created or 'oversees' the Fed it is, in fact, privately owned.

When did I deny that banks own "stock" in the Fed? I conceded that point very clearly already. What I'm trying to explain to you is that "stock" does not necessarily translate into "control," and the most fundamental property principles make clear that control is the essence of "ownership." For instance, stockholders of Ford or McDonald's are legally entitled to vote on replacing the Board of Directors, limiting the board's powers, ordering the board to take some specific actions, etc. Because they can exercise such control over the entity, they "own" it. Are J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, etc. similarly entitled to elect members of the Board of Governors or otherwise tell them what to do? NO! Because they have no control over the entity, they do not "own" it. Their so-called "stock" would be better characterized as a "membership fee" paid for the Fed's services and a stake in the Fed's losses than as an "ownership" stake, because "ownership" requires control, which they do not have. Control remains vested entirely in Congress and the President, so if anybody "owns" the Fed at all (and I would posit that nobody does), it'd be them. Again, the fact that they rarely bother to exercise that control has nothing to do with whether or not the Fed is a government entity, and everything to do with the degree of political will communicated by the voters, which is virtually nil at this time.


Let me oversimplify, mkay? Suppose I'm a kid running a lemonade stand (the Fed), and you (a bank) want to run your own but I have the town's largest and cheapest supply of lemons (currency). I say "tell you what, if you buy 100% of my 'stock' for $50, I'll let you be a member of my lemon distribution system, whereby I can quickly loan you lemons at below-market interest rates in the event that it gets hot out and people are thirstier than you expected and you run out of lemons. However, there's a catch: this 'stock' does not entitle you to any share of profits, because my stand is a non-profit enterprise devoted to the public service of ensuring a flexible supply of lemons. There's a second catch: my mommy and daddy (the government) still have completely unlimited control over the rules and management of my lemonade stand; i.e. in practice all you really get for your 'stock' is the rights associated with membership in my lemon distribution system, but you can't tell me jack**** about what to do with it." Badly needing the security of a last-resort source of lemons, you agree to the terms and buy this so-called "stock." Can you seriously say to anyone that you "own" my lemonade stand?

[Seeker]

I don't see why not. Doesn't seem particularly relevant to me, there's not much they can conceal for long (in the way of interest rates, etc.).

They should be made a normal central bank like other countries central banks.

"MARSHAL" law=cringeworthy.

[Darius871]

"MARSHAL" law=cringeworthy.

Indeed, the last thing I want is Tommy Lee Jones breaking up my keggers.

[OzzyKP]

Which is more of a government owned/run entity, the Fed or GM?

[DinoDoc]

Which is more of a government owned/run entity, the Fed or GM?

Government Motors. Barney Frank doesn't take time out of his day to interfere in the operations of the Fed.