Ron 'End the Fed' Paul, Federal Reserve overseer? By: Kathryn Ciano Special to the Examiner 11/04/10 5:24 PM EDT If you Google "Ron Paul" and "Federal Reserve" you'll find an awful lot of hits. You might find Representative Paul decrying the Fed as a manipulative organization shifting interest rates to short-circuit market wisdom. You'll find suggestions that the Fed caused the current recession. You'll find suggestions that we "End the Fed." And now, after Nov. 2, you’ll find that Ron Paul is actually in charge of Federal Reserve oversight: Paul is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology on the Financial Services , which oversees the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Mint and American involvement with international development groups like the World Bank. Unless someone bumps him, he's next in line for the subcommittee gavel. The Federal Reserve has enjoyed casual oversight while Congressman Barney Frank served as chairman of the Monetary Policy subcommittee. That is about to change. Ron Paul has spent his tenure in politics pushing vehemently for a Federal Reserve audit. Paul has been particularly forceful in asking that the Fed reveal where the government is actually spending TARP funds. The purpose of the Federal Reserve is to keep America from sliding into a severe financial depression. According to theory, when people save more money than they spend, the Fed steps in to shift interest rates to make spending more attractive. Fed chairmen have taken enormous liberties with this power. Rather than merely insure against another Great Depression, the Fed has manipulated interest rates at the slightest disturbance, frightening Americans into spending even less because government policy is so obscure. When people cannot decipher the rules of the game they are reluctant to take risks. By printing money, the Fed devalues each dollar and makes our currency less valuable overall. In the immortal words of Murray Rothbard: "The Federal Reserve System is accountable to no one; it has no budget; it is subject to no audit; and no Congressional committee knows of, or can truly supervise, its operations. The Federal Reserve, virtually in total control of the nation’s vital monetary system, is accountable to nobody — and this strange situation, if acknowledged at all, is invariably trumpeted as a virtue." Ron Paul's goal to audit the Fed is merely an attempt to shine some light into money-shifting practices. Since the Nov. 2 election, Paul has been very clear that his goal remains to "end or audit" the Fed: http://www.ronpaul.com/legislation/audit-the-federal-reserve-hr-1207/
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
