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Federal Reserve Audit
Posted Thursday, October 29, 2009, at 12:50 AM<< Previous | Read comments | Respond | Email link | Next >>
A commenter on my previous blog asked "I don't understand what the audit will do. I worked for the 'Fed' in Nashville. We were audited by the GAO. So what type of audit are they calling for?" Thanks for the question "dunroamin".
I felt this is a question that many people are asking so I decided to post the answer in a blog. I also wanted to ask if you would like these guys answers if they were answering to you about your personal bank accounts? I'm sure some of you will be amazed that I would ever pat a Democrat on the back, but these two video clips of Democrat Alan Grayson show that the very people who are controlling the Federal Reserve have gotten a little to used to not being held accountable for their decisions. Hats off to Grayson on this issue! Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
Federal Reserve General Counsel lawyer Scott Alvarez
This is the spineless and impotent law that has allowed the Federal Reserve very little accountability. I highligted what will be removed in red and what will be added in green. § 714. Audit of Financial Institutions Examination Council, Federal Reserve Board, Federal reserve banks, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of Comptroller of the Currency (a) In this section, "agency" means the Financial Institutions Examination Council, the Federal Reserve Board, Federal reserve banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision.
(b) Under regulations of the Comptroller General, the Comptroller General shall audit an agency, but may carry out an onsite examination of an open insured bank or bank holding company only if the appropriate agency has consented in writing. Audits of the Federal Reserve Board and Federal reserve banks may not include--
(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations;
(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)--(3) of this subsection. (c) (1) Except as provided in this subsection, an officer or employee of the Government Accountability Office may not disclose information identifying an open bank, an open bank holding company, or a customer of an open or closed bank or bank holding company. The Comptroller General may disclose information related to the affairs of a closed bank or closed bank holding company identifying a customer of the closed bank or closed bank holding company only if the Comptroller General believes the customer had a controlling influence in the management of the closed bank or closed bank holding company or was related to or affiliated with a person or group having a controlling influence. (2) An officer or employee of the Office may discuss a customer, bank, or bank holding company with an official of an agency and may report an apparent criminal violation to an appropriate law enforcement authority of the United States Government or a State. (3) This subsection does not authorize an officer or employee of an agency to withhold information from a committee of Congress authorized to have the information. (d) (1) To carry out this section, all records and property of or used by an agency, including samples of reports of examinations of a bank or bank holding company the Comptroller General considers statistically meaningful and workpapers and correspondence related to the reports shall be made available to the Comptroller General. The Comptroller General shall give an agency a current list of officers and employees to whom, with proper identification, records and property may be made available, and who may make notes or copies necessary to carry out an audit. (2) The Comptroller General shall prevent unauthorized access to records or property of or used by an agency that the Comptroller General obtains during an audit.
(e)
Audit and Report of the Federal Reserve System-
(1) IN GENERAL- The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.
(2) REPORT-
(A) REQUIRED- A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.
(B) CONTENTS- The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.
Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
Originally from Rutherford County, Fernandez moved to Shelbyville to pastor "The Crossing" church and has lived here for two years.
Hot topics RNC sucks up to a third party candidate!(25 ~ 12:12 PM, Nov 6)
Federal Reserve Audit
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I would never support a person like Alan Grayson and especially when he called a woman a "whore" because she didn't share the same opinion as him. This is just a sample of the some of crazy comments he has made.
That isn't acceptable in my beliefs but maybe it is yours.
Maybe Grayson isn't exactly the poster-child for appropriate behavior but even he can have a good idea every now and then. I haven't heard about the comment he made but if he's right about the Fed then he's right, regardless of his past actions.
The fact is that the Federal Reserve has been playing hard and fast with this nation's finances for way too long. They're not even a part of the federal government, they are a private entity. They should be required to submit to an audit by the GAO occasionally.
Jackspike
Grayson said in an interview on the Alex Jone show that "Here I am, the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist. And she's, this lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics."
Grayson apologized for the comment as taken but went on to clarify by saying "The attack was on her professional career, not her personal life". In other words he wasn't saying that she had sex for money, he was talking about the job she did for her former employee when she was a top lobbyist for Enron. He went on to point out that "The second definition of 'whore' in the American Heritage Dictionary is 'A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain.'" So by definition he used the word that described correctly his accusation. Now whether or not the accusation is true we may not can prove but he clarified his point by saying "I think a reasonable person could believe that a person who was paid to promote and defend Enron has compromised principles for personal gain." So at the end of the day he wasn't calling her a whore as you said "because she didn't share the same opinion as him", it wasn't intended to be a sexual comment at all. As for my personal opinion, I don't know much about Linda Robertson but if she held a position at Enron and she compromised principles for gain--then I think he used the perfect word. Whore is a strong word and when it is used to describe compromise instead of sex for money, it cuts quickly and deeply to the bone.
God in the Old Testament often uses the words whore and whoring to get His point across even when it's not making refrence to a sexual act. Judges 8:27 And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.
So, for the record I don't have a problem with Grayson using the word if the allegation is true. I think it very well describes the situation with the lobbyist.
And again I want to reiterate that Grayson did a great job putting the pressure on the Fed boys and although I don't agree with him on other issues, he did a great job on "the Fed issue"!
Alan Grayson was the first President of IDT Corporation, a publicly traded billion-dollar telecommunications company. Grayson was ranked as the 12th-wealthiest member of Congress based on financial disclosure forms with a minimum net worth of $31.12 million, according to Roll Call.
I am sure he has made some compromises himself . . .
"God in the Old Testament often uses the words whore and whoring to get His point across..."
the OT was not written in english, and the particular word "whore", with its current subtle english meanings, did not exist when the OT was written. this word was chosen by the person(s) who translated the text, based on the english usage of the word at that time.
to go back to the original word used "by god", if you will: went thither a whoring- zanah (zaw-naw') means to commit adultery; figuratively, to commit idolatry (the Jewish people being regarded as the spouse of Jehovah.)
"whore" is not the only word that has been chosen in translation:
"all Israel played the harlot with it there" new american standard
"All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there" new international version
"And all Israel committed fornication with it" douay-rheims
"and all Israel went thither astray after it" websters
"and all Israel played the prostitute after it there" world english
"fornicatusque est omnis Israhel" latin
"con el cual todo Israel se prostituy-- all'" spanish-la biblia de las americas
"y todo Israel fornic-- tras de ese ephod en aquel lugar" spanish-reina valera
"oł il devint l'objet des prostitutions de tout Isra'l" french
"Und ganz Israel hurte demselben dort nach" german
parsing words in biblical translation is a game for the experts to play.
I believe in capitalism and as seen in the videos, he is not the one in the hot seat on this day, it was the Fed. And who knows, you may be right, if we put his business life under the microscope he may have compromised on some issue in his past, BUT when he or anyone else stands up for what is right we should congratulate them.
jaxspike-Most of us who read and write in the TG blogs know you just enjoy stirring the pot but you haven't given us your position on the issue, so help me out, do you want the Fed to be audited? Yes or No if it not why? Thanks kelly<><
jaxspike
Stirring the pots a good thing. Keep us on our toes.
Lazarus I am aware of the word that whore was translated from. The fact remains that God sometimes chose to use this word to describe actions that didn't always involve sexual acts. I believe He did it to add emphasis to His message which is what I believe Grayson was doing in his comment. And don't give me that expert jive. We have experts everywhere in our government and the country is still on the brink of bankruptcy so I hope the Biblical experts have done a better job than our political and financial experts. lol
I hate stirring the pot . . . I just like for people to have the whole perspective when looking at an issue. Grayson is nothing more than an "attention whore" who is trying to stretch his few minutes of fame. In regards to the audit, I agree that it needs to be done but I lack faith in these comical politicians of actually doing it without political motives which includes Grayson. Does that answer your question? I never realize that stating my own opinions was stirring the pot because if that is so, then everyone has their hand in the same pot in here.
And for the record, a real man does not need to call a woman a whore just because there is a difference of opinion no matter what context the word is you.
Maybe we should abolish the Federal Reserve and go back to using the gold standard?
I am 100% for the fed being audited. It seems only fair to American citizens who are always subject to being audited.
I also see the difference in the term "whore" and what he meant when he referred to the woman in question.
However, if we're on the subject of fairness, you and I both know that if a Republican had called a woman a whore, no matter what the meaning, the entire Democrat party would be up in arms labeling him/her a sexist and calling for his resignation.
TubeSock your probably right about the Republicans getting beat up if they had made such a remark. Something else I found out about Grayson is that he is scared to appear on the O'Reilly Factor.
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.ht...
No problem they went to him. But also in the video clip we see Grayson dodging all questions like the politicians we have grown to despise. He cowards away from a great opportunity to make his case, although I think the Factor didn't accurately reported Grayson's remarks in the begining of the video. They slanted it to sound completely as though Grayson called Mrs. Robertson a whore in the sexual sense. Anyhow as I said before, I'm happy he stood up for the Audit the Fed issue.
He should have taken the opportunity to answer the questions. The video really makes him look bad!
Lazarus
Are you for Audit the Fed and if not why?
thanks
kf,
as someone else pointed out, the fed is already audited. now, i certainly believe that ALL the fed's activities should be audited, but that is a different question. i still dont understand what you believe the audit will accomplish. an audit is not an investigation. all it will examine is whether the financial statements fairly represent the activity of the organization, and whether their activities are within the scope of what they are authorized to do. an audit would not pass any judgement on the wisdom of their actions.
i cant watch your clips, which might (or might not) give me a better idea of what you are wanting an audit to accomplish. (dial up here, video overwhelms my equipment.) but if you can convey the gist of the clips, maybe i can give you a better answer?
as for the use of "whoring", i dont even think that is a good translation in the context of that particular verse. "whoring" being selling one's virtue for profit, as compared to that verse's reference to zanah as an act of unfaithfulness. i would find adultery to be a much better fit. either way, while i can see studying the historical/cultural context in order to better understand the meaning of what is in the bible, i am loathe to ascribe literary intent to the choice of particular words.
Lazarus-sorry didn't know you were on dial up-I'll pray for you. I found some text instead of video.
Here is how Ron Paul describes the problem.
Using Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, the Fed has gone on the warpath over the past two years. It has involved itself in direct financial support to individual firms such as Bear Stearns and American International Group, has developed new credit facilities to funnel money to numerous other financial companies and has boosted its balance sheet to more than $2 trillion -- secure in the knowledge that the legal blocks put in place in 31 U.S.C. 714 to prevent GAO audits of the most significant of the Fed's actions will hide it from any serious oversight. For an organization with arguably as much clout as the rest of the federal government put together to be able to escape significant oversight is a situation that needs to be rectified immediately.
This is why I introduced H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, earlier this year. I introduced similar bills in the early 1980s, but they never received nearly the attention that H.R. 1207 has. For this, we have the Federal Reserve's actions to be thankful for. More Americans than ever are now aware of the powers that the Fed has and the extent to which it is using them. In some recent polls, 75 percent of Americans supported an audit of the Federal Reserve, which is what H.R. 1207 would do. All restrictions on GAO audits of the Fed would be lifted, and all of its books would be fair game.
The complete text from this can be read at:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/100...
The Feds audit as it stands today is a weak little biscuit they threw the American people so we would believe they were being transparent and upfront. As far as what I believe it will accomplish when the Fed is completely audited--Well let me just say that many Americans out of the goodness of their hearts pay their taxes each year but it's a great motivator for all of us to be honest knowing that the threat of an IRS audit is possible. Seems to bring out the best in people. Transparency and Accountability.
"it's a great motivator for all of us to be honest knowing that the threat of an IRS audit is possible."
then you are apt to be sorely disappointed in the results if/when this passes. a financial audit resembles an irs audit in name only. my work has been audited every year of my professional career, and it is not something i dread at all. i look forward to the audit as a aid in doing my job well. while it is an inconvenience in the time it takes, a good audit is very helpful in having an outside professional examine your work & provide insights into how to do that work better. the "findings" are not a judgemental tally of deficiencies, but a guide to improve my work product. one of my peers changed their audit firm this year because their old auditor never had any "findings". just like athletes, a good professional never stops trying to get better at what they do. my audit has "findings" every year, and i take pride in those "findings", because they are relatively insignificant. then i plan how to eliminate them so that next year's "findings" will be an even greater challenge for the auditor to "find".
an audit will determine whether the actions of the fed exceeded what they are authorized to do, it will not pass any judgement on the wisdom of what they did. it really sounds like your issue is with the degree of power vested in the fed, and an audit will not address that at all. far too often, when an elected official starts crying out for an "audit", it only indicates that person has no real understanding of what a financial audit is. an audit is NOT an investigation. it can lead to an investigation (as has happened a time or two in bedford county this year) when transactions are found which are either incorrect, or not within legal limits. but an audit is not a criminal investigation, nor is it designed to judge the plans or practices of the auditee, beyond whether they are within the authorized bounds.
lazarus
I completely agree with you. An audit is not an investigation.
You said concerning your own job that you "look forward to the audit as an aid in doing my job well."
So why has Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many of his Senate buddies fought so hard against something that is actually designed to help them? It doesn't make sense. Do they have something to hide? Now Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are trying to stop it.
Talk about not wanting to do the will of the people. Last I checked HR1207 had 307 co-sponsors in the House and it's Senate version S 604, has already attracted 30 co-sponsors.