A Golden Fed Watchdog

You can be sure no other person in Congress is more qualified to oversee the politicized Fed than Ron Paul, period. He should be the next chair of the subcommittee that oversees it and he should lead the discussion for the introduction of a modern gold standard. Politicians, especially President Obama and Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, are truly frightened of Ron Paul. And the ultimate failure to get his Audit the Fed bill passed illuminates the greed of big spending politicians and their addiction to easy money Federal Reserve policies.

When you look back at the sausage making process that ended with the final passage of the Dodd-Frank Financial Services bill it’s important to note that it was initially passed in the House with an amendment that included Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed language. Yet, when it moved on to the Senate, Dodd stripped it out, and further weakened the bill by providing taxpayer protection to Fannie and Freddie. I wonder if Barney Frank had anything to do with that. Is it possible Dodd agreed to offer more protection for the twin headed mortgage monsters as long as Frank agreed to drop the audit the Fed language in the final vote by the House? I think it is and here’s why.

You may recall that before its final passage there was a last gasp for air where the GOP introduced Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill as a motion to recommit but it failed in the House by a vote of 229-198. All Republicans voted in favor of the measure with 23 Democrats voting along with them. You’ll be interested to know that 114 of the initial co-sponsors of Audit the Fed in the House, all Democrats, jumped ship and voted against it the second time around. Why the change of heart guys? Can’t you just hear the “At your service Monsieur Frank and Madame Pelosi?” How did that work out for you? You can bet that with the new Republican majority in the House, the Audit the Fed wouldn’t lose again. I would think a new bill to Audit the Fed will be forthcoming.

You would like a watch dog like Ron Paul watching over the Fed. If he becomes the next chair of the monetary subcommittee that oversees the Fed and the Fed realizes it will be audited you can be sure it will think twice about the handsome price it pays for defaulted mortgage bonds. The American way isn’t to prop up big spenders with your money. You know the one’s with the three car garage and extra bathroom. And if Paul is overseeing the Fed don’t you think he’ll be the first one to suggest a modern gold standard? I do. It’s worth noting since the Fed’s creation in 1913 the dollar has lost more than 96% of its value.

It has been 30 years since a serious discussion about adopting a modern gold standard. The last time it was seriously discussed was in 1982 during the U.S. Gold Commission. Reagan’s pro-growth agenda combined with Fed Chair Volker’s policies of slaying inflation put an end to the discussion. Now gold is back in the headlines as the country is reeling from the Bush/Obama spending binge, the easy money Greenspan and Bernanke Fed policies, Obama’s anti business stance, and the uncertainty it all has created.

In his minority report of the U.S. Gold Commission, “The Case for Gold”, Paul writes, “When one deals with currency that has no predictable value and in the long run is steadily depreciating, a ‘shortage’ will always occur. The shortage, however, is in purchasing power and trust, and not in nominal dollars. Ironically, the more dollars created to satisfy this ‘shortage’, the greater is the loss of purchasing power and trust.”

This week Bernanke actually told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the $600 billion in quantitative easing could create 700,000 jobs over two years. Is he serious? Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN is on the right track saying he would change the Fed’s mission to focus only on inflation. The Fed’s current mandate, set out in the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, is to set policy to influence inflation and employment. President Obama seems to be confused too about the Fed’s role by recently saying, “I will say that the Fed’s mandate, my mandate, is to grow our economy. And that’s not just good for the United States, that’s good for the world as a whole.”

If anything, the results from the mid-term elections were not only a rebuke of the Obama administration they were a no confidence vote for big government in general. It’s worth noting how well banks are doing from the recapitalization easy money and low rates afford. Wall Street and politicians make out like bandits. It would be nice to see Ron Paul leading the call from the people to rein the bandits in.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.