Eighty thousand people have now seen the famous Youtube of Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn refusing to answer Alan Grayson’s questions about where all the money is going. By law he doesn’t have to. Despite the fact that they have printed or guaranteed some $2 trillion dollars in the past year, the Fed answers to no one, and no government entity can audit them.
Last month Charles Grassley tried to push a bill through the Senate which called for the Fed to be audited, but Richard Shelby watered it down before it passed. Now there are 165 cosponsors of Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act in the House, but 135 of them are Republicans. (Bernie Sanders stands alone sponsoring the bill in the Senate.)
Alan Grayson is trying to bring Democrats on board:
The Federal Reserve has refused multiple inquiries from both the House and the Senate to disclose who is receiving trillions of dollars from the central banking system. The Federal Reserve has redacted the central terms of the no-bid contracts it has issued to Wall Street firms like Blackrock and PIMCO, without disclosure required of the Treasury, and is participating in new and exotic programs like the trillion-dollar TALF to leverage the Treasury’s balance sheet. With discussions of allocating even more power to the Federal Reserve as the ‘systemic risk regulator’ of the credit markets, more oversight over the central bank’s operations is clearly necessary.
Why is the administration fighting this? Well, it’s no secret that Larry Summers would very much like to take over as Fed Chair when Ben Bernanke’s term is up next year. Why would he want that kind of scrutiny? But what Larry Summers wants and what is good for the country may be two different things.
Please join me, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, James K. Galbraith, Dean Baker, Bill Black, Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, Yves Smith of NakedCapitalism, US PIRG, Public Citizen, Mike Farrell, Digby, Rob Kuttner, Ian Welsh, Bill Greider, Stirling Newberry, ANWF, Les Leopold, Mike Lux and others in supporting Alan Grayson and asking Democratic members of Congress to cosponsor the Federal Reserve Transparency Act.
Where does your member of Congress stand? Find out here. And if they aren’t one of the 135 136 Republicans or 30 29 Democrats cosponsoring this bill, why not?
Sign the statement here that will be circulated to members of Congress as Rep. Grayson tries to get the 53 more cosponsors needed to pass the bill. And be sure to check the box if you’d like to have your name publicly displayed on the page.



59 Comments












Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
good thing, since their own IG can’t answer sh*
oh yeah I signed. thanks Jane
Signed. First time ever my rep from ChesCo PA (Joe Pitts) is doing something right.
Awesome! Thanks.
Yeah the “I stand with Darryl Issa” thing is giving me heartburn.
ron paul’s bill is h.r. 1207
the senate version is bernie sanders’ bill s.604 (no cosponsors – might be useful to call our senators while we’re trying to get more cosponsors for the house version).
p.s. here is a great must see youtube from 2003. bernie sanders lectures and questions alan greenspan at a house financial services hearing. with the benefit of hindsight, almost 6 years later, it is particularly informative and revealing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBnKh6B2cMw
…..
p.s. the idea of a larry summers as fed chair is the stuff of nightmares. the idea that the fed is going to be given extra powers (central systemic risk regulator) is imo mind blowingly insane.
There’s more then one Bernie Maddoff. We are bailing out the privileged and powerful, aka: The Masters of the Universe or our Best and Brightest, saving their second homes and high priced lifestyle from the shitty investments made by their financial guru’s. We. Are. Screwed. and Washington is too afraid to tell us.
Maybe it could be a new beginning… :-)
Signed – thanks Jane for all you do!
Yeah, I can’t BELIEVE Obama wants to turn the entire economy regulation over to an agency which is NOT part of the Federal Government and answers to no one except maybe the Bilderberg Group.
Even Durbin sez the banks own this government, esp the Senate.
We are in a VERY bad place.
I’m beginning to wonder if we really do have a new president…things so seem so…the same.
Thanks for the petition, Jane.
audit all the banksters/fraudsters….lobbyists,frontman ALL THE CARNYS
for years my dad,an md was audited….cause he did his own returns
I’m in, too. Thanks, Jane, for the opportunity.
i’m still in in a bit of shock after watching an oversight hearing last nov when kucinich and issa teamed up to question treasury’s kashkari. it was one of the very few well run hearings i’ve seen with an antagonistic witness.
is anyone else listening to obama on terrorism (it’s live on cspan radio)?
the Swiss banks must be busting,and the Caymans must be sinking under the weight of all the offshore assets of American taxpayer $$$$$$$$$
I have it on msnbc
no,lately he seems to be a rhetorical windbag
Thanks, Jane. I signed too.
It certainly would be a welcome thing to have some transparency about something. Why do we have to live in a fog?
i signed
Good point.
i’m listening to obama, hoping he will say that that all our black site prisons are going to be closed (not just gitmo), that innocent people have been harmed and that the rule of law – current law (not some bogus commission) – will be followed.
I love my rep, Woolsey. Now if she would just lead the progressive caucus more assertively…
Oooooh, calling out LG as not rational. Nice to hear.
“Our values have always been our greatest National Security Asset”
uneffingbelievable
southerndragon and i are reading greider’s book secrets of the temple (on the fed) and looking forward to greider’s return for a oldies but goodies book salon (as it’s been 20 years since publication).
imo, the fed already has way too much power coupled with way too little accountability.
He was agreeing with Lindsey Graham – As Senator Lindsey Graham said: “The idea that we cannot find a place to securely house 250-plus detainees within the United States is not rational.”
o/t
progressive caucus is doing a live tv event on healthcare tonight – some details here
IANADW – swears :D
Maybe I heard it wrong. If you move that ” to the end of United States, then it means something else. Why would he be agreeing with that little twerp? That wouldn’t be centrist, that would be irrational.
I called My Senator and asked that She cosponsor S604, but her office doesn’t seem terribly concerned about the Fed being accountable to no one. I suspect a Conservative Republican would rather die than cosponsor a Bill with Bernie.
cbl2@26
Good for them. They should do more organized public events to raise their profile, IMO. We need to hear more progressive voices in the Congress.
jfc. obama should just say that whatever processes are going to be used to investigate, try and incarcerate those accused of violations of the laws of war are going to be used for all those so accused (including members of bushco). i’d like to hear what cheney would say to that.
Noam’s latest a must read
http://www.democraticundergrou…..15;5694413
I’m shocked! Both my extremely pragmatic and liberal rep is for it, as well as my fundamentally cheney’d rep is on record as for it! I am flabbergasted. And slightly hopeful. However, I am just a poor old tree and haven’t seen any recovery or funds from the government for our area. No talk of it as a matter of fact. Nice when unemployment is 18% huh?
cbl2 May 21st, 2009 at 7:50 am
23
In response to sadlyyes @ 16 (show text)
“Our values have always been our greatest National Security Asset”
uneffingbelievable
*********************
my 31 was to you
well yes,mebbe we need more McCainesque barbecues or sumptin
In Bernie Sanders’ version, this is what would be taken out:
And this is what would be appended as a new subsection e:
As the civil servants would say, it’s the thin end of the wedge. :P
That link doesn’t work for me…got another? Or the title of the discussion?
obama now justifying not releases torture photos. national security, blah, blah….
this is just sick.
thanks! can’t read and listen to obama at the same time, but will take a look as soon as obama is done.
v much appreciate the info!
they constitute the largest voting bloc in Congress (73 votes). I probably need to read more, but really don’t get why they don’t use all that muscle more. mebbe a case of they actually do, just don’t get any coverage outside of left blogistan
sorry for putting this out in the middle of a ‘call to action’ thread–but—it’s buggin’ me. not sayin’ yay or nay, just have questions.
what’s the catch?
grassley? bachman? rohrbacher? hello?
i’m questioning it because what is this legislation replacing/deflecting that would have gone on in place of it? investigate the fed instead of ‘what’? the same people blocking other investigations into this whole mess are wholeheartedly behind this.
i see names like theirs behind it and i have to ask, what’s the catch?
if there’s an answer, i’m missin’ it.
fyi – Attackerman has full text of speech for those of us too disgusted to watch
Just chatted with Greider about that this morning. We’re going to try and do it next week.
Shooter’s up now on msnbc… gak
It’s no surprise that Liz Cheney is on Morning Joe tomorrow
He’s starting to sound like Bush
yikes!
i appreciate the head’s up – at 700+ pages, it’s not a quick read especially when other reading intrudes and i’ve been distracted by other things. so far though i’m finding it very well written and a fascinating read and will happily put it on the top of the reading pile.
also i should add, pretty impressive that both naomi klein and rick williams have recommended it.
probably no one could do more than shooter to lessen my disappointment with obama’s speech.
cheney’s 911! 911! 911! is more than i can take. just turned it off. maybe i’ll read his speech later.
later pups.
I should add that a period would replace the bit that’s taken out.
Wish you would get this guy-Dr.Steven Miles, he wrote Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/06/06/28.php
lizzie’s on hannity tonight, that should be good. ‘treacle sweet’.
tcm has a movie with ‘mrs. cheney ‘ in the title on right now. joan crawford’s in it….dick is kindof a male version of her…heh…oh the drama!
cheney is saying about cia, ‘proud to having served with them’ yeah, like he was out there.
he sure ’served’ valerie didn’t he?
sorry bout that
http://www.democraticundergrou…..15;5694413
NOAM……
http://www.alternet.org/rights…..mmit_them/
Jane,
It’s a difficult time of the year to keep up with the posts. Just wanted to thank you for this post and the FDL Action and teaming on this vital matter. Many forget this need for transparency is about national security, not just national financial security.
Will we be able to get Paul Krugman and our host of econ guru’s who have come by the Lake in the last few months to join in?
Thank you so very much for this vital effort. Have you thought of having a printable petition that people can print off and bring to shut-ins and neighbors? They could be mailed to FDL or delivered to local PRIG offices.
Damn, are we gonna be the only folks who have read even part of it? Next week’s a little soon imo.
Wow. Thank you for linking that Sanders video selise. Actually brought a tear to my eye.
How do we get more Bernies in office? I don’t care if they’re left or right, so long as they’re adversarial to the establishment, and they’re working from data.
yeah, i wanted to read it. no way i can fit it in that quickly. not right now.
edit—but am looking forward to whenever he comes!!!
I bet the right wing, which hates the Fed, will oppose this legislation on principle.
nam redux
charlie foxtrot
chickenhawks
anthrax intimidation
extortion blackmail bribery
federal reserve is not federal
neocon 911 crime of the century
israel first dual nationals aipac
gravel kucinich paul nader
mckinney ventura too
perotcharts.com
RATM
Done. Signed on and contacted my Rep.