Audit The Federal Reserve Bill Passes House

By Cornelius Nunev


A small, but growing, number of individuals are not thrilled with the workings or indeed existence of the Federal reserve. The country's central bank does, after all, set financial policy and figure out the expenses of offering credit for banks. However, a bill that would authorize Congress to audit the Federal reserve has just passed the House of Representatives.

Federal reserve to face massive audit

Every person in the country, and most throughout the world, are affected by the Federal reserve and has been since 1913 when it was produced. Whenever you get installment loans, mortgages and borrow other cash, the federal reserve controls that. The costs of lending cash are controlled. It also controls how much a dollar is worth adjusting inflation depending on the things it does.

As an "independent government agency," the Federal reserve is still part of the government as a private business. A lot of people think it should be required to open its books to the public since there is not a lot of info made accessible to the public about its dealings. Citizens and legislators all support a bill that would require an audit of the Fed.

Bill to audit passes House

More government agencies might have to start showing their finances to the public soon since the House of Representatives just approved the bill 327 to 98. The bill would require the Federal reserve to open its books specifically. The Federal reserve has been criticized by Representative Ron Paul of Texas who might have been anticipated to do it since he has not supported the law for a while now.

The basic idea of the bill would allow more access to Federal reserve policy decisions. Right now, records from meetings where the Federal reserve decides to adjust the inflation rate on currency take three weeks to be released and five years for the transcript to come out. The agency publishes its balance sheet every week online too. CNN points out that Deloitte and Touche just did an internal audit. The audits are done every year. The idea of the bill is for more immediate access though.

Issue with audit

Congress might end up controlling the Federal reserve if the new Audit the Fed law is approved; Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is worried about, according to Bloomberg. This could trigger a ton of corruption and manipulation of the Federal reserve, which is an enormous concern for Bernanke. He has no issue with more transparency in finances though.

Representative Barney Frank does not think the law will go anywhere, according to Bloomberg, and it will probably not become the law.




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