The Federal Reserve Bank will continue its secrecy….for now

Looks like the things, as they are, for the “The Fed” will continue… for now.

The Federal Reserve, which has showered literally trillions of dollars on U.S. and foreign mega-banks in recent years without any semblance of public oversight, can breathe a sigh of relief, for now at least. Democrats and one Republican in the U.S. Senate joined forces on January 12 to protect the secretive central bank from transparency and accountability, voting down the enormously popular “Audit the Fed” legislation that would have opened up the controversial bank’s books to government auditors.

A majority of senators supported the bill, with 53 in favor and 44 against. But it was not enough to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to invoke cloture. Still, supporters of the bill vowed to keep pressing forward, saying the public has a right to know what the enormously powerful institution is doing to America’s money and economy behind closed doors. And in a passionate speech on the Senate floor, “Audit the Fed” sponsor Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a GOP presidential contender, explained why the measure was both urgent and necessary.

The bill was supported by all GOP senators except one, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. Despite campaign slogans about reining in the bankers and Wall Street, transparency at the Fed was opposed by all Democrats except Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Independent self-styled socialist from Vermont who normally votes with Democrats, also supported the measure. However, Sanders, currently running in the Democrat presidential primary, previously played a key role in sabotaging and watering down an earlier audit, sparking outrage among transparency campaigners.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate ahead of the vote, Senator Paul lambasted the secrecy that protects the Fed from accountability. “I rise today in opposition to secrecy. I rise today in support of Auditing the Federal Reserve. I rise in opposition to the lack of accountability at the Federal Reserve, an institution that has been far too long shrouded in secrecy,” Paul declared. “The objective of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act is simple: to protect the interests of the average American by finding out where hundreds of billions worth of our dollars are going.”

The only thing I will add to this story is this: As long as “The Fed” is controlled, by a particular protected minority; nothing will ever change. These people have too much invested in that little project and they are not about to surrender it. They will protect it at any costs. Until we a president, who will stand up to these people and true-blue conservatives, and not the neoconservative posers; who say they’re conservative and vote liberally — who will dismantle the control of these people from the Fed, nothing will ever change, at all.

The federal reserve bank lashes out at Rand Paul

Looks like the masters of that little universe are not going to give up their power:

The Federal Reserve is lashing out at Sen. Rand Paul’s plan to give Congress more oversight over the central bank, a proposal that could gain traction in the new Republican-led Congress.

The Kentucky Republican reintroduced his “Audit the Fed” legislation last month with 30 co-sponsors, including other potential 2016 GOP hopefuls, Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Fla.).

The proposal — once championed by his father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) —would subject the central bank to an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Regional bank presidents from around the country are decrying the plan, which they argue could damage the economy.

via Fed fires back at Rand Paul | The Hill.

Of course, we Paleoconservatives know what or more specifically whom controls that Federal Reserve and we also know that they are not going to give up control of that little gold mine. So, it looks like this is going to be a bit of a pitched battle. If only more Americans would wake up to the fact that these people are controlling our money system.

Take a look at the Chairmans of the Federal Reserve; notice anything similar about all of them, since 1974? Same goes for the Presidents as well. We know who controls them, and Americans need to step up, speak out and fix that little problem.

With Audio: Think Ron Paul is wrong about the Fed? Think Again

Many people might think Ron Paul is kooky, when it comes to the Federal Reserve and monetary policy. I think this program here, that covers this issue here; proves that as very wrong.

Check out this little program:

[podcast]

Blogger reactions: Techdirt, Firedoglake and Capitol Report, Bloomberg View and Hullabaloo

(H/T to This American Life Via Memeorandum)

Video: Is a major stock market correction coming?

(Via Fox News Video)

Ron Paul on Janet Yellen: “No Changes on Fed Policy with her”

This comes via The John Birch Society and their official magazine, The New American:

SPRINGFIELD, Virginia – Campaign for Liberty issued the following statement from Chairman Dr. Ron Paul on the nomination of Janet Yellen to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve:

“Many will make a big deal about the nomination of Janet Yellen to be the next Fed Chair, but the reality is, as long as we tolerate the Federal Reserve System and its flawed monetary policy, there will be no policy change at the Federal Reserve,” said Dr. Ron Paul.

“Notably absent from the discussion surrounding the debt ceiling and the government shutdown is the fact that the federal government would not be able to borrow the money it needs to finance its wars, bailouts, and entitlement programs if the Federal Reserve did not continue to buy government debt.

“Until the issue of the Federal Reserve is addressed, I am not optimistic we will see any true spending reform in Washington. Thankfully, the American people are waking up to what the Federal Reserve has been doing to our money and our economy.”

via Ron Paul Statement on Yellen Nomination – Campaign for Liberty.

Great opinion piece on the Federal Reserve Bank by George Will

I highly suggest that you read it.

Quote:

Because Ben Bernanke’s public persona is as mild as milk, the transformation in American governance in which he has participated is imperfectly understood and hence insufficiently deplored. The change is dramatized by two recent developments.

One was the campaigning by several constituencies for and against what supposedly were the two leading candidates — Larry Summers and Janet Yellen — to replace Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Fed can no longer be considered separated from politics.

[….]

The Fed has become the model of applied progressivism, under which power flows to clever regulators who operate independent of political control. The Fed is, however, a creation of Congress, which may not forever refrain from putting a bridle and snaffle on a Fed that increasingly allocates credit, wealth and opportunity.

via George Will: The Fed has become a creature of politics – The Washington Post.

There are some of us, who believe that we should end the fed and go back to the gold standard. I happen to be one of those people.

Why Liberals should not be yelling for Janet Yellen

Sounds like this is another one of them liberals that caused the big crash of 2008:

WASHINGTON — Following President Barack Obama’s failed effort to install his former economic adviser Larry Summers as Federal Reserve chairman, Janet Yellen, the central bank’s vice chair, has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Ben Bernanke in the Fed’s top spot. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and dozens of other Democrats in both the House and Senate have endorsed Yellen to be the next Fed Chair.

While supporting Yellen has become a cause célèbre for progressives opposed to Summers’ regulatory hostilities, Yellen supported a host of economic policies during the Clinton era that have since become broadly unpopular. She backed the repeal of the landmark Glass-Steagall bank reform and she supported the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. She also pressured the government to develop a new statistical metric intended to lower payments to senior citizens on Social Security.

These policies all enjoyed substantial support among economists during the 1990s, although many of those who endorsed them at the time have since recanted or criticized their implementation.

Yellen’s reputation as a more consumer-friendly economist than Summers rests largely on her tenure as president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve during the Bush years, when she identified the emerging housing bubble and called for deploying stronger regulation to limit its damage.

But in the 1990s, Yellen and Summers both served in the Clinton administration, and pursued many of the same policies. Yellen began serving as Chair of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1997, and publicly endorsed repealing Glass-Steagall’s separation between traditional bank lending and riskier securities trading during her Senate confirmation hearing. Yellen referred to deregulating banking as a way to “modernize” the financial system, and indicated that breaking down Glass-Steagall could be the beginning of a process allowing banks to merge with other commercial and industrial firms.

via HuffPo: Janet Yellen Urged Glass-Steagall Repeal And Social Security Cuts, Supported NAFTA.

Foxes guarding the hen house.

File this under “If the shoe was on the other foot”

It is not everyday that I happen to read something in the blogging world or on the internet that gets my dander up. But, I just happened to catch something over on VDare.com that really had me seeing red.

Steve Sailer over at VDare.com happens to highlight a posting of Matthew Yglesias over at Slate that links to an article by a Christopher T. Mahoney who used to be the former Vice Chairman of Moody’s.

In this article, he, of course, rips on the right and the austrian school of economics; which is fine, he is a liberal and they really do not like the idea of hard money. But this quote below goes further than that, it is a stereotyping of Jews and Gentiles. Check it out:

Why is the Right so in love with hard money, low inflation, and high unemployment? Here is my answer: because they do not believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch. You could spread out a smorgasbord of caviar, salmon, lobster and Dom Perignon, and they would turn their heads and eat a cheese sandwich. Reflation is easy and thus sinful. It’s that Protestant thing. The only people who understand monetary policy are Jews and Catholics.

Now, let me ask you a simple question. Could you imagine the outrage, if someone, like me; wrote about the travails of the fact that Jews basically run the federal reserve bank? Which is sort of true. Anyhow, would I not be condemned as an anti-semite? I have been, I know what that is all about. So, why does this guy get away with basically saying that non-Catholics don’t get banking and money? Is that not a bigoted statement? I believe it is, and think this man needs to apologize for this sort of rubbish.

Why, you ask? Because it plays into a bunch of negative stereotypes about Jews. Secondly, it strikes me a greatly bigoted towards Protestant Christians. I mean, if I cannot get away with making asinine comments about Jews on this blog, which I would never do. Then this guy should not be allowed to get away with writing this sort of rubbish at all.

It amazes me how liberals just love pushing division among Americans like this here. It is their MO and they’ve been doing it for years; but this is just outright blatant and it should not be tolerated.

Drop in voter registration in Ohio

Despite what has happened locally here and how I feel about it; I must continue on writing and blogging about what I consider to be important.

It seems that in Ohio, there has been a decline in voter registration, especially in Democratic Party strongholds. This is also signaling a national trend. Here is the Story and Video via Fox News Channel:

The Video:

The Story:

“Don’t boo, vote,” President Obama often says in his stump speech whenever crowds boo a Romney plan.

The off-hand call to vote may be by design. It comes amid a precipitous decline in Democratic voter registration in key swing states — nowhere more apparent than in Ohio.

Voter registration in the Buckeye State is down by 490,000 people from four years ago. Of that reduction, 44 percent is in Cleveland and surrounding Cuyahoga County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.

“I think what we’re seeing is a lot of spin and hype on the part of the Obama campaign to try to make it appear that they’re going to cruise to victory in Ohio,” Cuyahoga County Republican Chairman Rob Frost said. “It’s not just Cuyahoga County. Nearly 350,000 of those voters are the decrease in the rolls in the three largest counties, Cuyahoga, Hamilton and Franklin.”

Frost points out that those three counties all contain urban centers, where the largest Democrat vote traditionally has been.

Ohio is not alone. An August study by the left-leaning think tank Third Way showed that the Democratic voter registration decline in eight key swing states outnumbered the Republican decline by a 10-to-one ratio. In Florida, Democratic registration is down 4.9 percent, in Iowa down 9.5 percent. And in New Hampshire, it’s down down 19.7 percent.

“It’s understandable that enthusiasm is going to wane a little bit from that historic moment (in 2008),” says Michelle Diggles, the study co-author and senior policy adviser for Third Way. “You can only elect the first African-American president of this country once.

Of course, there are other reasons why people are just not happy anymore with the Democrats:

One Democratic Party consultant told Fox News that independents in Ohio may be leaning Democratic – an effect that may be tied to the bailout of Chrysler and GM. One of eight people in Ohio work in businesses directly tied to the auto industry. The state has been carpeted with Obama ads that point to his bailout of the industry and it’s managed bankruptcy.

I do not mean to toot my own horn; but in this case, I must. I predicted that stuff like this would happen on my old blog. When the bailouts happened, and when the healthcare bill was pushed through. The truth is Independents are simply running away from Obama. Another thing too that this report did not cover; is that some Democrats are simply not happy with the Obama Administration. This is for a number for reasons: The continuation of Bush’s polices on the war on terror and the war is one. The failure to close the prisons in Gitmo is another. The continuing of the war in Afghanistan is another. Also too, Ohio is also a union State and when Obama’s chief of staff at the time, said “F*** the big three!”, many in Ohio heard about that too. This all makes for a unpopular President.

Also too; the economy in Ohio, here in Michigan; and nationally, just plain sucks. There are many small businesses in Ohio, many of whom are faithful Democrats; and they are just looking at their bottom lines and are looking at this President and wondering, “What on earth are they doing to us?” To be fair, it is not all of Obama’s fault. The Federal Reserve with it’s QE1, QE2 and now QE3 is not helping the situation at all. When the fed prints more money, inflation happens, which drives the prices of everything up and this, in turn, hurts businesses. Which, in turn, hurts the economy. Bill Clinton learned this lesson early on, and made adjustments. Jimmy Carter and this President, did not. For that, they are paying a price at the polls.

I should also mention that this current foreign policy debacle in Libya, and Egypt and the rest of the Arab World is also weighing heavy on the minds of people as well. As it was in 1979, with the Iran hostage crisis. Now, Iran is being a problem again. Which is very ironic.

History has such a strange way of repeating itself.

The Federal Reserve Bank continues to screw America into the ground

Here is the Fed chairs announcement:

The Story via CNN.COM:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Federal Reserve announced plans to unleash more stimulus Thursday, in its third attempt at a controversial program to rev up the U.S. economy.

The policy, known as quantitative easing and often abbreviated as QE3, entails buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month. The end date remains up in the air, as the Fed will re-evaluate the strength of the economy in coming months.

The Fed is wasting no time. The purchases begin Friday and are expected to add up to only $23 billion for the remainder of September.
The bond-buying policy “should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative,” the Fed’s official statement said.

Meanwhile, the Fed will continue its existing policy known as Operation Twist. Together the two programs will add $85 billion in long-term bonds to the Fed’s balance sheet each month.

Now what effect will this have on our money supply?

Ryan W. McMaken writing over at Lew Rockwell’s blog correctly observes:

The effect of this will be:

Even less saving going on than is happening now. Why do the lending institutions need more liquidity? Because there are no real life loanable funds in the first place. No one is putting money in depository institutions, for example, because interest rates are at rock-bottom levels, but also because people have no excess money to save. So, the Fed is creating fake loanable funds through the purchase of the MBSs. Much of this will probably be newly-created money.

It will maintain the focus on consumer spending rather than investment. The idea is to keep people spending on real estate. Thus, less will be spent on business investment.

People will incur more debt.

We’ve heard for years from some incorrigible economists that what we need is the Fed to pump up the real estate market to get people spending again. Their answer is: more debt, more spending, less savings and investment.

This is what has been happening for years to no avail, of course, and the Fed is now just turning it up a notch. I’m sure recovery is right around the corner.

The definition of insanity/Keynesianism: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

A-farking-men. This is what happens, when you elect the same very idiots, who screwed the housing markets squarely into the ground. People that voted for this sort of Government, get exactly what is coming to them and the sort of Government that they voted for. Who the heck ever heard of printing money, that you do not even have to print? It is the textbook case of utter insanity.

I will say this; if Mitt Romney loses this election and the way recent events have turned out, he just might lose —- and this Nation goes into the crapper, because Conservatives and the Republican Party decided to pick a safe candidate. Then the Republican Party should be shut down for good and a new Conservative Party formed. Others have said it, I know and they are absolutely correct.

This stuff right here is the very reason why I hung it up with the Democratic Party and stopped voting for them and supporting them. I am not a millionaire or even someone with any sort of money at all. Hell, I have been unemployed for 8 damned years. However, I do know stupidity, when it see it; and it is on full display here. Only insane people would do stuff like this, and try to rev up the economy. The solution is to let the free-market work and do its job, not stick a statist finger in it.

Also too; as much as I am not a big fan of weaving ads into my blog postings. I believe this one is important. This would be a good time as any to get into Gold, Silver and other metals. I deal with two companies that sell the stuff. Their banners are below and they both come highly recommended.

They are:

and…:

Current Prices:

It would be absoutely insane not to get into at least some sort of Gold or other precious metal investment.

Others: Michelle Malkin, Newsy, Guardian, LewRockwell.com Blog and Real Time Economics — Blogger Roundup at Memeorandum.com