Audit the Fed? The Battle Against Obama’s Bankers Begins on Capitol Hill

Wed, 11/25/2009 - 00:48 — Glen Ford

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

A bill has begun its journey through the U.S. House that could crystallize (and polarize) public attitudes toward the wholesale Wall Street theft of mega-trillions in national treasure. Rep. Ron Paul has gathered over 300 co-sponsors for legislation that would force an audit of the Federal Reserve – “the heretofore unaccountable engine of bankster thievery on a cosmic scale.”

Audit the Fed? The Battle Against Obama’s Bankers Begins on Capitol Hill

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“The sheer magnitude of the Great Obama/Federal Reserve Wealth Transfer, were it to become generally known, could work a sea change in political alignments in the U.S.”

For the first time since the Crash of 2008, there is cause for hope that Wall Street’s devouring of the U.S. state can be halted. Republican libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (TX), leading a bipartisan coalition comprising a solid majority of the U.S. House, last week won committee approval of a bill that would open the books of the Federal Reserve, the heretofore unaccountable engine of bankster thievery on a cosmic scale.

The Obama presidency has seen by far the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world – some $23.7 trillion as of July, in the form of grants, loans and guarantees to the financial sector. Only a small fraction of this mind-bending mass of money – a sum approaching in volume two years of total U.S. economic activity (GDP) – was legislatively authorized by the U.S. Congress. Aside from the congressionally mandated $700 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) monies, nearly all of the mega-trillions were put at Wall Street’s disposal by Barack Obama’s executive branch and the quasi-public monstrosity, the Federal Reserve.

Virtually every agency of government with a budget or a shred of authority was mobilized to refloat The Casino. The Federal Reserve offered at least $6.8 trillion to Wall Street, a figure that approximates the total debt of the U.S. Government in 2003, but does not begin to convey The Fed’s post-Crash role in pauperizing the U.S. state for the benefit of the finance capitalist class.

Barack Obama shows no sign of willingness to restrain The Fed – quite the opposite, he is eager to expand the Federal Reserve’s powers, doubtless because he shares the banksters’ general goals and because he, correctly, views The Fed as a de facto extension of executive power. That’s why he mimics the bankers who, since The Fed’s founding in 1913, have sustained the fiction that the central bank is, and must remain, “independent.” In fact, The Fed is anything but independent; it is the financial class’s permanent tool, their branch of government, which now acts in perfect harmony with Obama’s executive branch.

“Nearly all of the mega-trillions were put at Wall Street’s disposal by Barack Obama’s executive branch and the quasi-public monstrosity, the Federal Reserve.”

Make no mistake. The White House views an assault on The Fed as an attack on the Obama administration. If Rep. Ron Paul’s 313 co-sponsors hang together, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 could bathe The Fed’s dealings in light bright enough to make the bankster roaches run for cover.

The Act would, as spelled out in the official summary, direct “the Comptroller General to complete, before the end of 2010, an audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and of the federal reserve banks, followed by a detailed report to Congress.” Note that the Comptroller is “directed,” not requested, to perform the audits. These audits would include “every item on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, all credit facilities, all securities purchase programs, etc.” Such an audit has never been carried out, because current law requires that The Fed give permission. The central bankers would no more permit an exhaustive audit than Dracula would allow his curtains to be parted at noon on a sunny day.

Accountants never won a revolution, but auditing The Fed can lay the groundwork for a hell of fight! The sheer magnitude of the Great Obama/Federal Reserve Wealth Transfer, were it to become generally known, could work a sea change in political alignments in the U.S.

Rep. Paul’s amendment, co-offered by Florida Democrat Alan Grayson, ultimately sailed through chairman Barney Frank’s Financial Services Committee, 43-26. But first the bill had to overcoming a blocking move by Black Congressman Mel Watt, who hails from Bank of America’s headquarters city, Charlotte. Watt carried President Obama’s water, offering an amendment that, in Paul’s words, would have “gutted” the legislation. He lost, badly.

“The Fed is the financial class’s permanent tool, their branch of government, which now acts in perfect harmony with Obama’s executive branch.”

Of the ten Black lawmakers on the committee, two (William Clay, MO; David Scott, GA) were already co-sponsors of the Paul bill. The other eight (Maxine Waters, CA; Andre Carson, IN; Keith Ellison, MN; Emanuel Cleaver, MO; Mel Watt, NC; Gregory Meeks, NY; Al Green, TX; Gwen Moore, WI), voted to shield the Federal Reserve and its collaborators in the administration. This is likely to become an increasingly untenable position for anyone that wants to avoid being portrayed as pro-banker. (Chairman Frank, himself, had previously endorsed the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, but suddenly changed his mind, no doubt after a talk with Democratic leadership.)

The other twelve Black Caucus co-sponsors of Ron Paul’s bill are Sanford Bishop, GA; Corrine Brown, FL; John Conyers, MI; Danny Davis, IL; Donna Edwards, MD; Marcia Fudge, OH; Jesse Jackson Jr., IL; Eddie Bernice Johnson, TX; John Lewis, GA; Donald Payne, NJ; Laura Richardson, CA; and Bennie Thompson, MS.

Congressman Paul’s stunning success in gathering over 300 co-sponsors, including all the Republicans and more than 100 Democrats, is indicative of broad and deep hostility to Wall Street – even in the corporate cash-soaked halls of Congress. Despite the administration’s efforts to distance itself from the banksters – the staged tempests in teapots about “clawing back” executive pay that ultimately come to nothing – the public knows who has been in office while most of the “bailout” has unfolded. Corporate media has rigorously avoided exposing the galactic scope of the wealth transfer that has taken place. But an audit of The Fed – even a vigorous public debate about auditing The Fed – could refocus attention where it belongs: on the great theft that has all but swallowed the U.S. state, whole.

“Corporate media has rigorously avoided exposing the galactic scope of the wealth transfer that has taken place.”

One benefit of such a debate, is that it would tear the Republican Party to bits. It should be remembered that Republicans were more opposed than Democrats to the initial bailout. President Bush lost all control of his congressional party, wracked as it was by the contradictions of its existence as a corporate servant with an anti-banker mass base.

The Democrats are in even greater need of a split along Wall Street fault lines.

The debate starts with the facts, and the facts should emerge from a congressionally mandated audit.

Nobody can hide a $23.7 trillion dollar transfer of the people’s wealth forever. First the audit, then the trials.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Comments

AFFORDABLE HOMES

Loans - 06/13/2010 - 18:25

Mr. Ford Is Right, But Will It Ever Happen?

KristinaChung2008 - 12/02/2009 - 05:02

What a stunning yet depressing article. Mr.. Ford is right on track, but in this political climate I cannot see the Federal Reserve Transperancy Act ever making it out of both houses.
Now that the financial markets have a direct link to the Executive Branch, they are free to continue on the path of least resistence, making any types of deals with the understanding that there will always be a big hand (by way of the Executive Branch) to hold or prop them up. (i.e., "just to big to fail. . .")
What are all of us hard working folks to do when we had such high hopes for our new President.
Kristy
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Accept it or not, economy has

AlinaP - 12/01/2009 - 02:34

Accept it or not, economy has been facing recession. But its a good news that cinema industry helps somehow.Cinema is an incredible artistic medium, but it is also the basis for a multi-billion dollar industry.For an instant, New Moon opening weekend shot it straight to third all time. "New Moon" pulled over $ 140 million at home, blasting weekend estimates of $ 85 to $ 100 million right out of the water. Only "Spiderman 3" and "The Dark Knight" had bigger opening weekends at the US box office.“New Moon” also pulled in the most money for midnight ticket sales, earning $ 26.3 million at the US box office Thursday before the early morning Friday shows. It’s likely those who were short of cash paid for their tickets with an allowance advance rather than a loan till payday, but filmmakers and theaters don’t care where the money comes from.

Transparency at the FED

Cynical Negro - 11/30/2009 - 20:14

The argument will be made that the FED should keep it's policy of secrecy intact because congress cannot be trusted to keep secrets from "our" enemies- i.e. China, any other country that isn't white (and the American people). It's funny how people bring up white conducted DNA studies and "post racialism" when whites continue to conduct their foreign policy based on race! Such hypocrites!

They tell us to forget about our holocaust and racial solidarity while they never forget about their holocaust and promote their solidarity across the globe....Do you really think the U.S. would've had the same problems it has now if it treated the worlds citizens with the same considerations that they show to the people of Europe and Israel???

Look at the EU for instance... They're still blocking Turkey from joining and you people wanna tell me about post racialism???? We suspect that this is happening because of race, religion, and the fact that Turkey doesn't have the same bias for Israel that other white EU countries have.

Any foreign policy guy will tell you that the peaceful transfer of power from England to America was made possible because of racial and cultural similarities.... Now do you really think that the white man is gonna tranfer power to the yellow man without a fight?

Human Genome Project Announces Biological "Race" Doesn't Exist

francislholland - 11/28/2009 - 21:53

On a separate topic, the US Department of Energy has said that it can't find any evidence through the Human Genome Project that biological "race" exists today or that race ever existed.
http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2009/11/press-release-us-human-genome-project.html

The journal Nature Genetics says that this is no mere semantic argument, but that scientific research has to be done based on categories that have scientific validity, and the category of "race" has been proved to be meaningless as a scientific category:

"With very rare exceptions, all of us in the US are immigrants. We bring with us a subset of genes from our homelands, and for many Americans, often first-generation but more commonly second-generation, the plural noun 'homelands' is appropriate. From this perspective, the most immediately obvious characteristic of 'race' is that describing most of us as Caucasian, Asian or African is far too simple. Despite attempts by the US Census Bureau to expand its definitions, the term 'race' does not describe most of us with the subtlety and complexity required to capture and appreciate our genetic diversity. Unfortunately, this oversimplification has had many tragic effects. Therefore, we need to start with the science . . ."

Here's an example of how using "race" as a category in science can be damaging: A study is done in which Black people are compared to white people to see . . . anything. However, the "Black" raced people have white genes from slavery and the white "raced" people have Black genes from slavery, unbeknowst to them. Wouldn't you have to DNA test all of the participants to determine their real "race(s)" in order for such a comparison between the Black "race" and the white "race" to have any meaning at all? Is the one-drop rule a scientific fact on which research can be based, or is it an anachronistic white supremacist apartheid de facto law whose validity DNA science stubbornly refuses to confirm and, in fact, utterly disproves?

A lot of Black bloggers would like to ignore this question or "kill the messenger", but the 2010 census is being prepared right now (I would certainly hope) and we are certain to have a national debate about the scientific meaninglessness of the "racial" categories in the census.

If a person with African ancestry "passes for white", does that mean they can't get sickle cell anemia? Are human cells going to obey the laws of science or the culture of America?

I frankly think it's time that we buried the biological concept of race. Realistically, there is no way to do so while continuing to use the same word to refer to sociological race. It's like using the same word for hotdog that you use for hamburger and hoping that college educated people will eventually learn to distinguish one from the other.
Anyway, please post a widget that leads to the Department of Energy discussion of whether the biological "Black race" exists or not, and let's have an open discussion about this, since the issue is going to come up like a cobra in the 2010 census preparations regardless of what we do. We might as well look at the science so that we can argue from a position of "knowledge is power." http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2009/11/press-release-us-human-genome-project.html

Lawrence A. Summers said women can't think straight

francislholland - 11/28/2009 - 21:25

I knew something was terribly wrong when President Obama selected Lawrence A. Summers as his chief economic adviser. Readers may remember that Summers was the president of Harvard University when he gave a speech to faculty and guests in which he said that women's might be inherently incapable of advancing in science. He said this was just his hypothesis, but it was the hypothesis that he believed best explained why there are so few women e.g. as full professors in the sciences. He said the same might hold for Blacks as well.
I posted about this scathingly at MyDD in January of this year when Summers hiring was announced, and then my posting privileges at MyDD were withdrawn. I guess it's not permissible to criticize hiring a man who has already said that he doesn't believe women and Blacks can do heavy intellectual lifting, and so it was predictable that his team would be made up of white men who thought as he did.
Have a look at my post, pointing out that bringing in a team of white male supremacist old boy's club economists who were central in creating this crisis in the first place, when they advocated for loosening banking and derivative regulations during the Clinton Administration, was not the way to deal with the nation's economic troubles. Have a look:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/1/14/10381/5787
I believe the reason Summers doesn't have Geithner's job is that Summers' comments about women were going to come up in his Senate confirmation hearings. Once they were aired he would either have to stand by his comments, in which case he could not be confirmed and Obama would look like an idiot. Or he woud have to say that the hypothesis that he strongly believed in just a few years ago was one that he had totally changed his mind about in the mean time. In either case, his confirmation hearings were going to be an immense embarrassment, and so Obama put him in a position that didn't require Senate confirmation.

Just the facts

Afric-I - 11/28/2009 - 03:19

Thank you, Glen for unvarnished facts. A battle royale is indeed brewing. Even six figure income earners are ticked with the current thefts.
Raymundo, Bush 43 earned the "worst president" designation fair and square. Not even "bait and switch" Obama can even come close (though he is trying very hard).

Glen is 150% Correct

Enlightened Cynic - 11/26/2009 - 23:23

Indeed the "debate starts with the facts." And as Glen more than intimates, the facts ain't pretty. The stark fault lines between Left and Right do, nontheless, coalesce around the Bankster Bailout; the largest wealth transfer in the history of the world, beside, America's wars of aggression and it's crony-capitalist contract procurement process. I see an increasingly number of Left bloggers stating such, expressing commonality with RWr's who are upset about it.

What it demonstrates is not only mass disillusionment but a glimpse of possibility, the average American know they've been screwed, just not how royally. The magnitude, if exposed throughly and examined critically, will blow their minds. No more will they grapple with the nuances of why credit card rates and bank fees increased and credit remained inacessible because of the "second" Great Depression, shit will become crystal clear as their wallets shrink and the double-fuck sets in. The litany of transgressions are too many to list, but include:

Geithner and Sumners lying about the scope and depth of the economic crisis. The last "Great Depression, recall, didn't end in 6 mos, with stock mkt. bubbles providing the celebratory atmospherics;

Geither using AIG as a conduit to pay the culprits, the primary responsible parties (some of whom were not COMMERCIAL BANKS, but were INVESTMENT BANKS at the commission of their crimes, but whom Treasury allowed to convert their charter) premiums on their losses. I don't give a shit how much one likes Beanie Babies, they ain't worth a C-note no more, just like the assets--toxic and not-so-toxic--held by financial institutions are not worth book value either. Ask the people in Cali if you don't believe, ask the Real Housewives of Orange County if C-Span is not your thing.

Geither paying AIG "par" value or 100% on the dollar for their toxic assets when prior thereto, AIG was tendered offers from private parties to pay 60% or less on the dollar. Geithner paid AIG excess value, premiums that were in turn funneled to BOA, Goldman Sachs, et. al (even European fuckups, main culprits like Barclays got in on the action). In American locker-room parlance, that's what's know as "running a train,--" a double-f**k;

The complete lack of transparency that even NY City Dictator, Billionaire Politicial Chamelon, and rising political "star" Michael Bloomberg's Bloomberg Financial is still finding difficult to pierce with their ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation. When a politically connected billionaire with a financial publishing empire can't find out what the f***k's going on. Be afraid, be very afraid.

The realization that the Fed discount window and bond auction process is colluding with the banks to keep the economy falsely afloat, which is why many economists refer to the forthcoming bursting of the "stimulus bubble." Stated simply, the government in collusion with the Fed, the Banksters, and with FDIC's deposit insurance and capital reserves resources reluctantly dragged along, is engaged in a gigantic Ponzi Scheme to keep capitalism and the stock mkt. afloat;

I applaud Ron Paul and the other signatories to this legislation. The only thing that is scary is that the media will do it's best to down-play, to obfuscate it, to minimize it, to cheer at it's "success" and use that as proof of how it was necessary. The Propagandist won't lie down easily. But the people will be reawakend, or further reawakened, or galvanized. If there is one truism in all of this, it's that:

The Elites in general, and Obama and his Disaster Capitalists and Corporatists specifically, ARE SCARED SHITLESS!!! Ask Michael Bloomberg if you think I'm exaggering. The Oligarchs are scared shitless that the American people might truly dissect the thievery and the lowdown nature of politics, the craven-ness of their "leaders." Sparks could potentially fly.

Especially if or perhaps "when First Qtr 2010 retail numbers come in under expectations, which will only further exacerbate the commercial real estate meltdown that looms on the near horizon, residential ARMs reset, and unemployment continues unabated (the media loves to say the numbers are leveling off, sort of like saying Jupiter is closer than Pluto).

Stay tuned, shit could get mighty interesting, maybe?... the revolution will be televised! Live and in-color, on ABC and C-Span. God Bless you Ron Paul despite whatever other faults or shortcomings you have, or disagreements one has with your political perspective.

in my opinion Geithner and

halfway - 06/20/2010 - 14:29

in my opinion Geithner and Sumners lying about the scope and depth of the economic crisis. The last "Great Depression, recall, didn't end in 6 mos, with stock mkt. bubbles providing the celebratory atmospherics;
is good article!

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Obama's Bankers

raymundo - 11/26/2009 - 22:15

Obama is now an open and avowed Federal Reserve/Corporate fundamentalist. His candidacy-to-presidency was a total bait and switch that chumped all the hard working people who voted for him. I feel his loyalty to the Fed and his corporate masters-and his disreagrd for everyone else-will force common people to regard him as the Worst President Ever.
http://www.circusgiganticus.com/barack-obama-worst-president-ever/