I'd like Dean Baker more if he had as much paranoia in him as thi picture below seems to promise:
... But alas, he's all too grounded. He does have his moments, though. Take this recent offering reproduced at Counterpunch: "Waterboard the Fed!" he cries, and I say 'damn straight'!
What in hell have them white-cuffed clowns gone and done with our precious 2 trillion dollars they lent out to the banksters anyway? As Dean notes:
"there is no public paper trail for the Fed’s [bailout] loans, even though it has more than three times as much money outstanding as does the Treasury through TARP -- it is not possible to find out how much money Goldman Sachs borrowed, at what interest rate, and which assets it posted as collateral. The Fed has explicitly refused to make information about specific borrowers public. In fact, the inspector general who has the responsibility for overseeing the Fed told Congress that she does not have this information. Apparently the Fed doesn’t even trust its inspector general with information on its lending practices....Hey, he's not done yet. There's more:It is difficult to understand the rationale for this secrecy.... After all, this money... belongs to us."
"The Fed has more direct control over the direction of the economy than the President and Congress, yet it carries through its actions... outside of the public’s view....Yeah! What Dean said, eh?In a democracy, it is difficult to justify a situation in which the most important economic policymaking body is, by design, more answerable to the banking industry than [to] democratically elected officials."
Enter, stage left, the pwoposed pwogwessive wesponse: The Fedewal Weserve Twanspawency Act, which requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit the Fed’s books and report to Congress.
Yes, the GAO -- that posse of Elmer Fudds with green eyeshades. Just try to imagine what heroic scenes must ensue as these shock troops of accountability fan out among the hushed offices of the Fed, kicking in paneled doors and demanding, "The secwet books! Pwoduce 'em, you sowwy ass pwicks!"
Comments (12)
Geez, I thought the GAO was one of our secret weapons. I dont know why or when they investigate something, but they usually seem to come up with something embarassing to the object of it.
Anyway, who else could perform such an audit? Congress? The House Banking Committee? What would Ralph say if he had written the article?
Posted by hce | May 27, 2009 12:11 AM
Posted on May 27, 2009 00:11
I suspect the GAO can always find something embarrassing because there's so much that's embarrassing to be found. To put it another way, even Elmer Fudd could shoot a wabbit if he found himself in an Easter basket.
Posted by MJS | May 27, 2009 12:24 AM
Posted on May 27, 2009 00:24
we don't need an audit function
not windows into the temple
but a temple blown flat
so to start
we need a pujo committee
aimed not at the pri sec banksters
but at the fed itself
use its revelations
as rallying point
for
a congressional take over of the fed's functions
recall the fed era 34-50 was different from all eras since
read up on it and the interest rate ceiling
the house just like it originates tax rates oughta
originate interest rates too
maybe not the volume of credit
ie the ration sizes etc
that's a matter for constant adjustment
the control the interest rate mechanism...
and over the entire time range
of rates and risks
this all needs
as close to direct popular scrutiny and regulation
as our system at least formally permits
now
that would be our house of reps right ??
u really mean that owen ??
hand it over
to that corporate dominated
hen coop
are u nutz owen ??
yup
better that way then the now way
some star chamber
filled with prez appointed "experts"
drawn from wall street's "little list"
turkey roping economy wide effective demand
ultimately
to control wage trends
Posted by op | May 27, 2009 12:00 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 12:00
I thought Baker deserved some credit for this article (which you gave him), and he or you might have gone further to point out the fundamental systemic error of allowing a consortium of private banks (i.e. the Fed) to run the nation's economy. I dont recall if you've ever remarked on Web of Debt, by Ellen Brown, the most recent exponent of this idea.
Posted by hce | May 27, 2009 12:20 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 12:20
Not necessarily disagreeing with your larger point, hce, but it wasn't the Fed that launched this massive supply-side giveaway. That was the public's supposed representatives, the election winners.
The problem with so much anti-Fed lit is that attention to the Fed quickly crowds out any attention to capitalism.
I'd be willing to at least experiment with letting the Fed live, if it were forced to do so amid far less corrupted majority rule and far more aggressive public enterprise aimed at out-competing the private kind.
Posted by Michael Dawson | May 27, 2009 2:49 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 14:49
The GAO? Bah, how many lobbyists they got?
Posted by fledermaus | May 27, 2009 3:07 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 15:07
"far more aggressive public enterprise aimed at out-competing the private kind."
indeed the commanding heights ARE the fed
we could benignly neglect
the entire pri sec banking system
so long as we "publicated" it's depository
sub-system
"The problem with so much anti-Fed lit is that attention to the Fed quickly crowds out any attention to capitalism"
not sure we need to even consider that
leave the hi fi pri sec banks
by the side of the road
corporate critique gets misleading if we just intend to sublate em
and petty capitalism is playful children stuff
the fear and loathing of neps and nepmen
since the turn to market forms in
20's soviet russia
has remained a silly bugbear
of the hot pink left
Posted by op | May 27, 2009 4:44 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 16:44
There is nothing but lies, pure lies, that will spill forth after the words, "In a democracy..."
In a democracy," we'd all be eating marshmallow hash and floating down nude water tubes to our consorts' waiting arms. Memo to pwogs: this is not a democracy. Never was, never will be, never should be. And Dean Baker wants his puppy back -please.
We had the biggest heist of all time, right under under our noses, but we want the names of whole stole the loot.
Why? so we can get it back. Yeah, sure.
So we can stop the the next time? Yeah, right. So we can ask them to please let us have some gruel with the leftovers?
Nihilism tonight, folks - we're eating nihilism tonight.
Posted by mjosef | May 27, 2009 5:25 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 17:25
Congress will get right on it I'm sure, yesterday I listened to R Neal and S Lynch(MA Dems) talk at a conference for skilled trades training and the success veterans have been as apprentices. Most of their attention was directed to blowing themselves, then the carpenters union's office secretary. I was impressed................ the carpenters have good taste.
Posted by Son of Uncle Sam | May 27, 2009 7:34 PM
Posted on May 27, 2009 19:34
"the carpenters union's office secretary"
a play by moliere ???
Posted by op | May 28, 2009 7:37 AM
Posted on May 28, 2009 07:37
Yeah a lesser known work, I didn't know how to translate it to French but the story line skirts an officer and a gentleman except instead of pilots everyone is training to be carpenters...like Jesus. Mary is the secretaries name and they meet at an organized dog fight.
Posted by Son of Uncle Sam | May 28, 2009 11:27 AM
Posted on May 28, 2009 11:27
Michael: here's a possible answer to your comment that the Fed has not played the major role in the current financial crisis, from Henry Liu at Asia Times:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KE27Dj07.html
Posted by hce | May 28, 2009 6:38 PM
Posted on May 28, 2009 18:38