Lunatic Ron Paul to Oversee the Fed

Looks like he'll get that completely redundant and unnecessary audit he's been clamoring for since Missouri joined the Union.....that is how old he is right?
 
Any government institution or agency that cannot bear the scrutiny of an occasional crackpot elected official probably deserves to be dismantled anyway.

That said, I'm sure the Fed will be fine, and will probably emerge stronger from the ordeal of having Paul's beady little eye turned upon upon it.

Bill Clinton survived the ire of the entire Republican Party. The CIA (and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community) seems to have gotten over the 9/11 Commission's investigation. George W. Bush managed to spend 8 whole years in office, without getting indicted.

Personally, I think it's a brilliant plan by the Republican leadership: The Fed isn't in any real danger, and Paul is kept too busy persecuting it to get in the way of the rest of the Party.
 
theprestige said:
Personally, I think it's a brilliant plan by the Republican leadership: The Fed isn't in any real danger, and Paul is kept too busy persecuting it to get in the way of the rest of the Party.
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Unless he comes up with some inanely poor and weakly evidenced charges that he takes to the media. That will reflect poorly on the Republicans. But what are the chances that Ron 'Gold Standard' Paul will make crazy accusations and suggest insane economic policy?
 
I don't think he'll be able to bring it down either but this sure will be interesting to see.
 
It's genius! Now, if only the Dems could take a page from this book and put the most loud spoken 9-1-1 truther in charge of a commission to investigate that.

It will be as effective as Jesse Ventura running around with a camera crew.
 
From the OP
head of the House subcommittee that oversees monetary policy
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Somehow I don't think that means "Oversees the Fed"
Board governors and staff testify before Congress frequently to discuss issues within the Federal Reserve's purview. For example, in 2008, governors and Board staff testified 35 times before Congress. During the first quarter of 2009, governors and staff have testified 12 times. Board staff also meet with Congressional staff to brief them on topics related to the Federal Reserve's operations and future direction.
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So Ron Paul will get to ask them questions.

A "board of governors" will get to
conducts and supervises independent and objective audits, investigations, and other reviews of Board programs and operations to promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse. The OIG's work spans the Board's mission areas. As of March 31, 2009, the OIG had initiated 12 audits and evaluations, 5 investigations, and numerous law and regulation reviews; responded to a number of hotline calls, emails, and correspondence; and followed up on open recommendations. During 2008, the OIG completed 15 audits, inspections, and evaluations; closed 9 investigations; and issued a strategic plan and compendium of open recommendations.
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It gets pretty vague from there as to who controls what the reserve does. But I think if it was Ron Paul's committee, I would think we would have heard about past Congressional involvement and I'm sure I haven't.


On a separate note, this reminds me of John Bolton's appointment to the UN, appointing the guy who thinks the agency should be disolved. :)
 
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I'm not arguing with your post Puppycow. The news links are saying the same thing. It's clearly worthy of a thread.

I'm just pointing out what "oversight" means in this case. Not much as far as I can tell.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
I'm not arguing with your post Puppycow. The news links are saying the same thing. It's clearly worthy of a thread.

I'm just pointing out what "oversight" means in this case. Not much as far as I can tell.
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They satisfy him with a dog and pony show?
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
I'm just pointing out what "oversight" means in this case. Not much as far as I can tell.
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Effectively correct.

Officially the committee can push for any radical change to the monetary system that it wants, but auditing the FOMC would still require legislation as far as I know. Ron Paul has been ranking minority member of the committee for some time, so has been in the frame to become chairman for as long as the republicans were likely to become the house majority (IE this is not really breaking news). Thanks to Paul, the committee had "audit the Fed" hearings in 2009 anyway, but they don't appear to have got anywhere.

Paul is on the International Monetary Policy subcommittee as well, but I doubt he will be able to get China to revalue, or abolish the IMF either.
 
The True Scotsman said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Ron Paul an MD? Does he have any qualifications to discuss economic issues?
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And most of the senators on the Armed Services committee aren't senior staff officers in the U.S. military.

Most of the senators on the Intelligence Oversight committee aren't spies or even espionage agency administrators, and never have been.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you actually have no idea at all what the point is, of having citizens elect representatives to oversee the activities of its government?
 
theprestige said:
Any government institution or agency that cannot bear the scrutiny of an occasional crackpot elected official probably deserves to be dismantled anyway.
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The trouble with this is the trouble with Ron Paul... which is that, nutter that he is, he already "knows" what he is going to find.

If he finds anything that supports whatever his crackpottery says he should find, he´ll tout it as evidence of the government conspiracy against the American people, or whatever. If he doesn´t, he´ll keep searching and searching and searching, wasting lots of time (not just his own but also that of people who have real work to do) and taxpayer money, since obviously the Fed is hiding the evidence from him.
 
The True Scotsman said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Ron Paul an MD? Does he have any qualifications to discuss economic issues?
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Very few Politicians are qualified for their positions.
This is why we are in the mess we are.
Politicians are a bunch of lawyers for the most part, they exist to complicate simple things, and create the need for more lawyers.
 
I'll stick my dunces economic head round the door and ask a question I've longed to ask but have been too ashamed:

What does the Fed do?
 
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