Important info: Barney Frank and Ron Paul together on this!
By Daniel at 30 August, 2009, 8:47 pm
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said he plans legislation to restrict the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers and subject the central bank to a “complete audit.”
At a recent town hall meeting, Frank said the House would pass a bill to use an audit to crack open the central bank’s books more widely, but in a way that will not encroach on the central bank’s monetary policy independence.
In addition, he said the House would move to rein in the authority that allows the Fed to lend to a wide range of non-bank firms in “unusual and exigent circumstances.”
A bill sponsored by Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul that would allow the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency, to audit Fed interest-rate decisions has won the co-sponsorship of more than half of the House.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned that the bill would compromise the U.S. central bank’s policy-making independence and could undermine financial markets and the economy.
Frank said he has been working with Paul on compromise language. “He agrees that we don’t want to have the audit appear as if it is influencing monetary policy because that would be inflationary,”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Rep-Frank-eyes-Fed-audit-rb-3402785272.html?x=0
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