Liberty MavenThe Fed’s New Powers, What Will Ron Paul Say?
March 29th, 2008 8:14 am | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Big Government, Debt, Economics, Federal Reserve, Free Market, Maven Commentary, Money, Politics, Ron Paul | 2 Comments
The US economy is going up in flames. If Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has his way the solution is to pump in more gasoline. Free market capitalism is being tortured and the federal regulators are holding all of the killing devices. Now they want more.
Yesterday Treasury Secretary Paulson unveiled a plan that would give the Federal Reserve the power to regulate every aspect of the US economy. They would have authority over the entire banking sector as well as the entire securities industry. Once again the well meaning do-gooders approach the problem by creating more problems and bureaucracy. An interesting question is then… will this make the Federal Reserve an actual government agency? It seems it will. Currently it is technically a private organization, more aptly a cabal.
This proposal is reminiscent of the knee jerk reaction of the Bush administration in creating the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11. Instead of actually streamlining and cutting waste we combine wasteful departments to create a new leviathan of waste. I wonder what catchy title this new expanded Federal Reserve organization will have? I have a suggestion, the “Department of the American Economic Apocalypse”. I can’t wait to see what the meaning will be of each color in the new “Economic Threat Advisory System” (reference). Oh no! The economic threat level is in the Red! Sell your stocks now!
It will be interesting to see the gamut of opinion bouncing around regarding these new proposals. It already seems some Democrats in Congress are somehow of the opinion it doesn’t do enough. There is only one word for that: scary. These new regulatory suggestions will have to be approved by Congress and it is likely that they will. After all there is nothing worse than being viewed as a “do nothing” legislator. From my perspective, in this day in age, there is nothing better.
I anxiously await the reaction to this from Ron Paul. He will no doubt echo some of the words above. On this I sincerely hope that he isn’t the lone voice of dissent. It will also be interesting to see the reaction from presumptive GOP nominee John McCain. He’s been attacked from the left about his “do nothing” approach to the economy. Of course that is just politics. He would certainly do something. The only question is would he approve of this? I guess we’ll have answers to these questions soon enough.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:37 am (#)
Why not just give them the whole country. That’s what the people who own and operate the Federal Reserve Bank want.
After the Fed causes the .com and housing bubbles, the Bush administration wants to give them more powers. Guess who’s pulling Bush’s strings.
The government has no oversight on the Fed. The Fed’s existence is a violation of the Constitution. The way the Fed was created was a violation of the Constitution. No one in the Federal government has the legal Constitutional right to regulate anything, let alone award regulatory powers to a private entity.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:07 am (#)
We basically already have given the Fed the whole country. But it’s up to those of us who understand this to take it back.
With regards to the author’s question as to whether or not Ron Paul will denounce this, he will obviously be completely against it. He doesn’t support the existence of the Federal Reserve. He is certainly not going to agree to increase its powers or any kind of bureaucracy.
With regards to being a lone opponent, we can only hope that is not the case. But I fear how this will play out in Congress. Sounds like a march on Washington to me!!!!
With regards to whether or not this will make the Fed a government agency, of course it won’t. Most of the population assume that because it has the name Federal in it and that it has the ability to raise or lower interest rates and control other vital aspects of our economy, that it is part of the government. They do not want to be part of the government, as that destroys their entire position. It puts them under public scrutiny. It brings them actually into the U.S., subject to U.S. laws and accountability and… of course… regulation. Why would they want to do this, when they can exist outside of the U.S., controlling and regulating the U.S., but have no regulations on them?
We have to do everything we can to illuminate these realities and motivate the general public to see that justice needs to be done.