Audit the Fed, Then End It!

By  Dr. Ron Paul, Goldseek

I have been very pleased with the progress of my legislation, HR 1207, which calls for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve and removes many significant barriers towards transparency of our monetary system. This bill now has nearly 170 cosponsors, with support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a companion bill in the Senate S 604, which will hopefully begin to gain momentum as well.  I am very encouraged to see so many of my colleagues in Congress stand with me for greater transparency in government.

Some have begun to push back against this bill, and I am very happy to address their concerns.

The main argument seems to be that Congressional oversight over the Fed is government interference in the free market.  This argument shows a misunderstanding of what a free market really is.  Fundamentally, you cannot defend the Federal Reserve and the free market at the same time.  The Fed negates the very foundation of a free market by artificially manipulating the price and supply of money – the lifeblood of the economy.  In a free market, interest rates, like the price of any other consumer good, are decentralized and set by the market.  The only legitimate, Constitutional role of government in monetary policy is to protect the integrity of the monetary unit and defend against counterfeiters. 

Instead, Congress has abdicated this responsibility to a cabal of elite, quasi-governmental banks who, instead of stabilizing the economy, have destabilized it. It took less than two decades for the Federal Reserve to bring on the Great Depression of the 1930’s.   It has also inflated away the value of our currency by over 96ince its inception.  It has invisibly stolen from the poor and given to the rich through this controlled inflation, and now openly stolen through recent bank bailouts.  It has predictably exacerbated the very problems it was meant to solve. 

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