Brad,<br><br>At least there is one guy out there trying to defend us. He's been getting a ton of air time lately. Will people begin to see the wisdom of his message before it's too late??<br><br>Rik<br><br><a href="http://www.dailypaul.com/node/85020">http://www.dailypaul.com/node/85020</a><br>
<h1 class="title">Ron Paul's Statement Introducing HR 1207</h1>
<span class="submitted">Posted March 4th, 2009 by <a href="http://www.dailypaul.com/user/1" title="View user profile.">Michael Nystrom</a></span>
<p>HR 1207 is Dr. Paul's recently introduced legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, officially titled <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc111/h1207_ih.xml">"The Federal Reserve Transparency Act."</a>
The bill has the following 11 bi-partisan cosponsors: Neil Abercrombie
[HI-1], Michele Bachmann [MN-6], Roscoe G. Bartlett [MD-6], Paul Broun
[GA-10], Dan Burton [IN-5], Walter Jones, Jr. [NC-3], Steve Kagen
[WI-8], Ted Poe [TX-2], Bill Posey [FL-15], Denny Rehberg [MT], and
Lynn Woolsey [CA-6]. If your rep is not among these 11, please contact
him or her and urge their support.</p>
<p><b>Here's Dr. Paul's statement introducing the bill:</b></p>
<p> Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Federal Reserve Transparency
Act. Throughout its nearly 100-year history, the Federal Reserve has
presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States
dollar. Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing
power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve's loose monetary
policy. How long will we as a Congress stand idly by while hard-working
Americans see their savings eaten away by inflation? Only big-spending
politicians and politically favored bankers benefit from inflation.</p>
<p> Serious discussion of proposals to oversee the Federal Reserve is
long overdue. I have been a longtime proponent of more effective
oversight and auditing of the Fed, but I was far from the first
Congressman to advocate these types of proposals. Esteemed former
members of the Banking Committee such as Chairmen Wright Patman and
Henry B. Gonzales were outspoken critics of the Fed and its lack of
transparency.</p>
<p> Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the
shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight of its operations.
While the conventional excuse is that this is intended to reduce the
Fed's susceptibility to political pressures, the reality is that the
Fed acts as a foil for the government. Whenever you question the Fed
about the strength of the dollar, they will refer you to the Treasury,
and vice versa. The Federal Reserve has, on the one hand, many of the
privileges of government agencies, while retaining benefits of private
organizations, such as being insulated from Freedom of Information Act
requests.</p>
<p> The Federal Reserve can enter into agreements with foreign central
banks and foreign governments, and the GAO is prohibited from auditing
or even seeing these agreements. Why should a government-established
agency, whose police force has federal law enforcement powers, and
whose notes have legal tender status in this country, be allowed to
enter into agreements with foreign powers and foreign banking
institutions with no oversight? Particularly when hundreds of billions
of dollars of currency swaps have been announced and implemented, the
Fed's negotiations with the European Central Bank, the Bank of
International Settlements, and other institutions should face increased
scrutiny, most especially because of their significant effect on
foreign policy. If the State Department were able to do this, it would
be characterized as a rogue agency and brought to heel, and if a
private individual did this he might face prosecution under the Logan
Act, yet the Fed avoids both fates.</p>
<p> More importantly, the Fed's funding facilities and its agreements
with the Treasury should be reviewed. The Treasury's supplementary
financing accounts that fund Fed facilities allow the Treasury to
funnel money to Wall Street without GAO or Congressional oversight.
Additional funding facilities, such as the Primary Dealer Credit
Facility and the Term Securities Lending Facility, allow the Fed to
keep financial asset prices artificially inflated and subsidize poorly
performing financial firms.</p>
<p> The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would eliminate restrictions
on GAO audits of the Federal Reserve and open Fed operations to
enhanced scrutiny. We hear officials constantly lauding the benefits of
transparency and especially bemoaning the opacity of the Fed, its
monetary policy, and its funding facilities. By opening all Fed
operations to a GAO audit and calling for such an audit to be completed
by the end of 2010, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act would achieve
much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve. I urge my colleagues
to support this bill.</p><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 12:06 AM, Brad Haslett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:flybrad@gmail.com">flybrad@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Rik,<br>
<br>
You're right! It's time to let failed institutions, uh, fail. The<br>
"cure" for this illness is worse than the disease. One of the things<br>
I admire about my employer is that when they make a huge mistake (and<br>
they've made many) they take a huge write-off and move on - no cooking<br>
the books, no dragging out the pain over 120 accounting periods, just<br>
fess-up and don't do it again in the same way. I can't help but think<br>
if we had adult leadership who would explain in simple terms to the<br>
American people that this is going to hurt really, really badly, ONE<br>
TIME, and we won't do it again, we'll all be better off. Ain't gonna<br>
happen.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Brad<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 11:55 PM, Eric Sandberg <<a href="mailto:sanderico1@gmail.com">sanderico1@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Brad,<br>
><br>
> More of the same .... and on and on and on .........<br>
><br>
> Are these people EVER going to wake up???<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/03/bernanke-angry-aig-operated-like-hedge.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/03/bernanke-angry-aig-operated-like-hedge.html</a><br>
><br>
> The Fed needs to disappear.... it would be good, when they go, if they'd<br>
> take Obamao with them.<br>
><br>
> Rik<br>
><br>
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 9:51 PM, Brad Haslett <<a href="mailto:flybrad@gmail.com">flybrad@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> Rot Row, Rastro! Even Michigan realizes they're on a runaway train<br>
>> with no engineer at the helm. The attached is from the Detroit News.<br>
>> Is it just me, or is that halo on Chocolate Baby Jesus getting dimmer<br>
>> by the day?<br>
>><br>
>> Brad<br>
>><br>
>> --------------<br>
>><br>
>> Wednesday, March 4, 2009<br>
>> Editorial: Cap-and-trade plan will sink Michigan<br>
>> The Detroit News<br>
>><br>
>> President Barack Obama's proposed cap-and-trade system on greenhouse<br>
>> gas emissions is a giant economic dagger aimed at the nation's<br>
>> heartland -- particularly Michigan. It is a multibillion-dollar tax<br>
>> hike on everything that Michigan does, including making things,<br>
>> driving cars and burning coal.<br>
>><br>
>> The president is asking for a system of government limits on carbon<br>
>> emissions. The right to emit carbon would be auctioned off to generate<br>
>> revenue for more government spending programs.<br>
>><br>
>> The president's budget projects receipts totaling $646 billion through<br>
>> 2019 from the sale of these greenhouse gas permits.<br>
>><br>
>> The goal, according to the president's budget outline, is to reduce<br>
>> greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide to 14 percent below<br>
>> 2005 levels by 2020.<br>
>><br>
>> Doing so will drive up the cost of nearly everything and will amount<br>
>> to a major tax increase for American consumers.<br>
>><br>
>> Such a tax will hit the Midwest particularly hard, which is why House<br>
>> Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, told the New York Times,<br>
>> "let's just be honest and call it a carbon tax that will increase<br>
>> taxes on all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a<br>
>> light switch, pure and simple."<br>
>><br>
>> The carbon tax will be paid by energy companies, manufacturers and<br>
>> public utilities, who will pass the cost on to their consumers.<br>
>> Michigan will be especially targeted. It gets 60 percent of its<br>
>> electric power from coal plants, and the state's economy is still<br>
>> reliant on heavy manufacturing such as car and truck assembly and auto<br>
>> parts production.<br>
>><br>
>> Michigan will lose as carbon tax money is shifted to states with a<br>
>> greater presence of high-tech and service businesses.<br>
>><br>
>> The proposed tax would take effect in 2012 and has the very real<br>
>> potential to throw the nation back into recession, if indeed the<br>
>> expected recovery has arrived by then. It's impossible to raise costs<br>
>> for such basics as manufacturing and energy production by more than<br>
>> half a trillion dollars over a decade and not have the effects felt<br>
>> across the economy.<br>
>><br>
>> The nation's gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate<br>
>> of 3.8 percent in last year's fourth quarter -- the worst economic<br>
>> record in nearly three decades. Is this really a good time to be<br>
>> talking about a carbon tax? How will such talk impact investment<br>
>> decisions?<br>
>><br>
>> Obama promises to use some of the revenues for tax relief for certain<br>
>> workers and some of the rest for subsidies for alternative energy. But<br>
>> that won't make up for the damage this huge new tax will do to the<br>
>> economy, especially in Michigan.<br>
>><br>
>> A similar program in Europe hasn't worked. European automakers<br>
>> complained about carbon dioxide limits the European Union proposed in<br>
>> 2007 as damaging to the economy.<br>
>><br>
>> The Obama cap-and-trade program will place even more of the economy<br>
>> under the control of the federal government. The only upside is that<br>
>> the negative impact it will have on economic growth and job creation<br>
>> will take care of the carbon emissions problem, for sure.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> Find this article at:<br>
>><br>
>> <a href="http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090304/OPINION01/903040314" target="_blank">http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090304/OPINION01/903040314</a><br>
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