bobbyw24
07-09-2010, 06:47 PM
The Wall Street reform package currently awaiting the return of Congress from the Fourth of July recess is packed with provisions that will remake the financial landscape. One element, though, which has gotten relatively little attention in the media, is a wild card: the authorization of a far-reaching audit of the Federal Reserve for the first time in the central bank's history.
The audit measure is retroactive -- it requires unprecedented disclosure of the identity of businesses, banks, hedge funds, foreign central banks or any other entity that was on the receiving end of Fed largess, and will reveal how much they got and on what terms. The information is required to be posted online within 30 days of the law's enactment.
Depending on what the audit turns up, the Fed could find itself back in the public eye and could face growing calls for reform. "I think once people see what the first audit discloses, they're going to want to see more," said Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who, along with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), shepherded the audit bill through the House. "We'll be back."
Paul first got involved in the effort to audit the Fed in the 1970s, he said, signing on to bills by Texas Democrat Henry Gonzalez, whose chief investigator has since written the definitive book on Fed opacity.
"It was one of the motivating factors for me to be involved in politics," Paul said of Fed secrecy. Grayson, meanwhile, was in his first term. "I did know when we started this that this was a bill that had been introduced over and over again for 26 years," said Grayson.
Popular interest in the Fed, which flowed from Paul's insurgent GOP presidential primary bid and was stirred by the central bank's expansive role staving off a financial-system collapse, which flooding banks with billions of dollars. Grayson's committee interrogations of Fed officials, from Chairman Ben Bernanke on down, have garnered millions of views online.
"It wasn't me lobbying that got all those signatures," said Paul. "It was the issue, how well it was popularized. I think certain Web pages were of tremendous help, both coming from the left and the right and the middle."
More
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/09/alan-grayson-to-the-fed-w_n_641244.html
The audit measure is retroactive -- it requires unprecedented disclosure of the identity of businesses, banks, hedge funds, foreign central banks or any other entity that was on the receiving end of Fed largess, and will reveal how much they got and on what terms. The information is required to be posted online within 30 days of the law's enactment.
Depending on what the audit turns up, the Fed could find itself back in the public eye and could face growing calls for reform. "I think once people see what the first audit discloses, they're going to want to see more," said Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who, along with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), shepherded the audit bill through the House. "We'll be back."
Paul first got involved in the effort to audit the Fed in the 1970s, he said, signing on to bills by Texas Democrat Henry Gonzalez, whose chief investigator has since written the definitive book on Fed opacity.
"It was one of the motivating factors for me to be involved in politics," Paul said of Fed secrecy. Grayson, meanwhile, was in his first term. "I did know when we started this that this was a bill that had been introduced over and over again for 26 years," said Grayson.
Popular interest in the Fed, which flowed from Paul's insurgent GOP presidential primary bid and was stirred by the central bank's expansive role staving off a financial-system collapse, which flooding banks with billions of dollars. Grayson's committee interrogations of Fed officials, from Chairman Ben Bernanke on down, have garnered millions of views online.
"It wasn't me lobbying that got all those signatures," said Paul. "It was the issue, how well it was popularized. I think certain Web pages were of tremendous help, both coming from the left and the right and the middle."
More
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/09/alan-grayson-to-the-fed-w_n_641244.html