A Lesson From AIG: How to Fix the Fed

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Dearest Rick,
We (the american people) deserve to know where our money went and exactly how it was spent. It is our money, not the FEDS. They take (print) it at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers. Preforming an Audit of the Fed is LONG overdue.
Looking at the FED's balance sheets and books makes perfect sense and should have always been the rule. If the FED had always maintained an open book and used reasonable accounting practices we would not be in this mess.
For justice, liberty and the american way of life YOU MUST vote/agree to Audit the FED. May the truth set us all free.
American Justice

American Justice of KS 2:30PM December 02, 2009

To author Rick Newman:
Your comment that what Congressman Ron Paul wants and has proposed would...
"allow Congress to get involved in decisions on monetary policy, and eventually eliminate the Fed altogether—as if politicians would be better economic stewards than the Fed's gray-suited bankers"
...is a complete falsehood!
Though he would like to eliminate the Fed, Ron Paul's current legislative proposals would not allow Congress to get involved in monetary policy, nor would they eventually eliminate the Fed.

Sean McBride of NH 1:34PM December 02, 2009

Your comments about Ron Paul's bill completely misses the point. The point of the Fed Audit is to know exactly where the funds have been put. You effectively are trying to state that political interference in the Fed is not welcome, but don't seem to realise that Congress and politics have always been a part of the Fed. Alan Greenspan did whatever possible (keep interest rates low) to make sure the party was in full swing when it came time to re-appoint the Fed chief.
The Great Depression happened AFTER the Fed Reserve was incorporated. Also the Fed as it is now is NOT the first central bank (the others before it failed).
What Ron Paul is saying, is if we really believe in free markets (as everyone claims but few truely believe in), then why do we have a CENTRAL bank. CENTRAL economic planning is SOCIALISM. How could a board of central bankers possibly know what the governing interest rate should be? If this board is so wise, how did they miss LTCM, the asian crises, the dot com crash and the mortgage meltdown? The market is NOT 'free'. There is a big, 800lb gorilla in the market called the Federal Reserve, that keeps manipulating the money supply

FlyingAfrican of UT 10:53AM December 02, 2009

The latest in a series of scientifically created depressions and now the king threatens a rise in interest rates and possible inflation as if they are not the cause of inflation and deflation with their greedy destructive self serving policies- over printed fiat currency. Give us a break! So for now on lets call the Federal Reserve Toilet Paper dollars "FRTP" and remove the "AR from "TARP" just call it all toilet paper or TP for short- BNo fiat systems last forever!
John

John of CA 5:14AM December 02, 2009

Readers:
To sign a petition for more Fed regulation and accountability, please follow the link bellow and let your elected representatives know what you think about the 'un'-elected Fed clan.
http://www.votervoice.net/Core.aspx?AID=972&APP=GAC&SiteID=0&IssueID=16611
Obviously you do not have a solution. You just want the Fed to kept alive. The Fed has the power to print money. It is a complex process by which they accomplish this. This power affects not only the US but the world ecomony. They can give 'secret' loans with their 'printed' money to anyone they like.
GoldmanSachs gambled and lost on AIG, and the Fed bailed them out. That was criminal. But GoldmanSachs has filled the government with 'experts', like Henry Paulson (now at John's Hopkins, reaping his rewards).
The Fed gives the 'illusion' of regulation so that people by risky 'complex financial instruments' thinking they are safe. The current crisis exposed the true nature of this 'instruments' and all the Fed wants to do is use tax-payer funds to cover up the loses and let the banks go raping the nation with their 'complex financial instruments'
By making the Fed more accountable, via auditing and more transparency, this game will be stopped. US is a poor country now, we cannot afford such corruption anymore.
Sanoran Triamesh

Sanoran Triamesh of CA 1:39AM December 02, 2009

Bernanke wants the federal reserve to continue propping up banks without addressing too big to fail.
Either brake up banks that are too big to fail, or stop propping them. You can't have it both ways.

vic of NJ 8:48PM December 01, 2009

Looks like nearly everyone posting wants to audit the Fed and did better research than the author.
No wonder the news media is in such bad shape, poor research, pundits, spouting poor logic.
It is great to have an smart president, but what I wouldn't give for an honest one like we have had in the past.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President.
"If Congress has the right [it doesn't] to issue paper money [currency], it was given to them to be used by...[the government] and not to be delegated to individuals or corporations." -- President Andrew Jackson, Vetoed Bank Bill of 1836
"A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world-- no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." -- President Woodrow Wilson
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance." -- James Madison
"The Federal Reserve banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this nation is run by the International bankers." -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa)
"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependant on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class." -- Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863
"Some [Most] people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers." -- Congressional Record 12595-12603 -- Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency (12 years) June 10, 1932

richard of ID 3:30PM December 01, 2009

Looks like nearly everyone posting wants to audit the Fed and did better research than the author.
No wonder the news media is in such bad shape, poor research, pundits, spouting poor logic.
It is great to have an smart president, but what I wouldn't give for an honest one like we have had in the past.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President.
"If Congress has the right [it doesn't] to issue paper money [currency], it was given to them to be used by...[the government] and not to be delegated to individuals or corporations." -- President Andrew Jackson, Vetoed Bank Bill of 1836
"A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world-- no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." -- President Woodrow Wilson
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance." -- James Madison
"The Federal Reserve banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this nation is run by the International bankers." -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa)
"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependant on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class." -- Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863
"Some [Most] people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers." -- Congressional Record 12595-12603 -- Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency (12 years) June 10, 1932

richard of ID 3:28PM December 01, 2009

Say it with me Rick...
"The Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air..."
Am I the only one that gets pissed at this?
Everyone else in the world has to go EARN their money, but these guys get to just snap their fingers and 2 TRILLION dollars appear? Then they give it to their buddies in the banking industry?

Michael of FL 1:59PM December 01, 2009

Far down the list? Hard to get past that first sentence and take anything you say seriously. Artificially low interest rates in the face of out of control lending had nothing to do with it. The only entity with the means to pull the emergency brake failed to do so, that places them, with all due respect, smack dab at the top of the list.

Ben of CA 1:35PM December 01, 2009