Thread: Fed Backers Scared by Ron Paul's Audit Bill

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php ... nu-43/1433

Fed Backers Scared by Ron Paul's Audit Bill

Written by John F. McManus
Thursday, 16 July 2009 16:30


Congressman Ron Paul’s H.R. 1207, calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve, has attracted 270 cosponsors in less than five months. The Republican congressman's bill has received strong bipartican support, and approximately 100 of the bill's cosponsors are Democrats. Support for H.R. 1207 has frightened some of the Fed’s champions in the academic world, Fed officials themselves, and, of course, many of the Fed's friends in the financial world.

There are obviously some who don’t want the American people to know what the Fed has been doing ever since it was launched in 1913.

Secrecy, of course, is completely anathema in a free country. Especially should the Fed and the powerful few who lead it be heavily scrutinized. Fed action controls the value of the dollar, and everyone in this nation who uses dollars — all but infants — is victimized when their value is eroded.

In the Senate, a companion bill (S. 604) authored by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has attracted some cosponsors and has already been blocked from consideration by Democrats through use of a questionable parliamentary procedure. But DeMint hasn’t given up. The heat is on and it is growing in intensity.

On July 15, therefore, more than 250 economists, academicians, and investment bankers signed an Open Letter to Congress and the Executive Branch claiming that “the independence of U.S. monetary policy is at riskâ€

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/07/ ... ependence/

Petition for Fed Independence
The following is a petition calling for a commitment to Fed independence:

Open Letter to Congress and the Executive Branch

Amidst the debate over systemic regulation, the independence of U.S. monetary policy is at risk. We urge Congress and the Executive Branch to reaffirm their support for and defend the independence of the Federal Reserve System as a foundation of U.S. economic stability. There are three specific risks that must be contained.

First, central bank independence has been shown to be essential for controlling inflation. Sooner or later, the Fed will have to scale back its current unprecedented monetary accommodation. When the Federal Reserve judges it time to begin tightening monetary conditions, it must be allowed to do so without interference. Second, lender of last resort decisions should not be politicized.

Finally, calls to alter the structure or personnel selection of the Federal Reserve System easily could backfire by raising inflation expectations and borrowing costs and dimming prospects for recovery. The democratic legitimacy of the Federal Reserve System is well established by its legal mandate and by the existing appointments process. Frequent communication with the public and testimony before Congress ensure Fed accountability.

If the Federal Reserve is given new responsibilities every effort must be made to avoid compromising its ability to manage monetary policy as it sees fit.



Ricardo Caballero MIT
Kenneth French Dartmouth College
Robert Hall Stanford
Anil Kashyap Chicago Booth
Pete Klenow Stanford
Frederic Mishkin Columbia
Thomas Sargent NYU
Michael Woodford Columbia

Andrew Abel Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Daron Acemoglu MIT
Michael Adler Columiba University
Yacine Ait-Sahalia Princeton University
Fernando Alvarez University of Chicago
Scott Anderson Wells Fargo & Co.
Cliff Asness Managing and Founding Principal, AQR Capital Management LLC
Paul Asquith Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Backus NYU
Dean Baim Pepperdine University/UCLA
Ravi Bansal Duke University
David Bates University of Iowa
Andrew Bernard Dartmouth College
Richard Berner Morgan Stanley
George Borts Brown University
Scott Brown Raymond James & Associates
Markus K. Brunnermeier Princeton University
Ralph C. Bryant Brookings Institution
Michael Carey Calyon Securities (USA) Inc. Credit Agricole Group
Christopher Carroll Johns Hopkins University
Martin Cherkes Columbia University
Diego Comin Harvard University
Jernej Copic UCLA
Dora Costa UCLA
Steven Davis University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Angus Deaton Princeton University
Davide Debortoli University of California, San Diego
Eddie Dekel Northwestern University
Harold Demsetz UCLA
Scott Desposato University of California, San Diego
Douglas Diamond University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Peter Diamond MIT
Francis X. Diebold University of Pennsylvania
Avinash Dixit Princeton University
Matthias Doepke Northwestern University
Darrell Duffie Stanford
Pierre Collin Dufresne Columbia
Martin Eichenbaum Northwestern University
Andrea Eisfeldt Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
Jeffrey Ely Northwestern University
Eduardo Engel Yale University
Eugene Fama University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Henry Farber Princeton University
Roger Farmer UCLA
Jon Faust Center for Financial Economics, Johns Hopkins U.
Michael Feroli J.P.Morgan
Wayne Ferson U.S.C.
Kristin Forbes MIT-Sloan School of Management
Mark Gertler New York Univiersity
Marc Giannoni Columbia University
Simon Gilchrist Boston University
Robert J. Gordon Northwestern University
Roger Gordon UCSD
David Greenlaw Morgan Stanley
Gene Grossman Princeton University
Steffen Habermalz Northwestern University
James Hamilton University of California, San Diego
Gary Hansen UCLA
Robert Hansen Tuck School, Dartmouth College
Gordon Hanson UC San Diego
Milton Harris University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Tarek Hassan University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Zhiguo He Chicago Booth
John Heaton University of Chicago
D. Lee Heavner Analysis Group, Inc.
Christian Hellwig UCLA
Gailen Hite Columbia Business School
Yael Hochberg Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Stuart Hoffman PNC Financial Services Group
Bengt Holmstrom MIT
Bo Honore Princeton University
Peter Hooper Deutsche Bank
Takeo Hoshi University of California, San Diego
Christopher House University of Michigan
Peter Howitt Brown University
Chang-tai Hsieh University of Chicago
Ellen Hughes-Cromwick Chief Economist, Ford Motor Company
John Huizinga University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Erik Hurst University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Ravi Jagannathan Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Dana Johnson Comerica Bank
Karen Johnson Federal Reserve Board of Governors (retired)
Charles I. Jones Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
Paul Joskow MIT
Matthew Kahn UCLA
Juno Kang The Bank of Korea
Steven Kaplan University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Bruce Kasman J.P. Morgan Chase
Peter Kenen Princeton Uniiversity
Ralph Koijen University of Chicago Booth School of Business
David Kotok Chariman, Central Banking Series, Global Interdependence Center, Philadelphia, PA.
Arvind Krishnamurthy Northwestern University
Rafael La Porta Dartmouth College
David Lake University of California, San Diego
Bruce Lehman UCSD
Nan Li Ohio State University
Hilarie Lieb Northwestern University
John Liew AQR Capital Management
Juhani Linnainmaa University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Andrew Lo MIT
Kevin Logan Dresdner Kleinwort
Guido Lorenzoni MIT
Hanno Lustig UCLA Anderson
Louis Maccini Johns Hopkins University
Burton Malkiel Princeton University
Eric Maskin The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
Robert McDonald Kellogg School, Northwestern University
Daniel McFadden University of California, Berkeley
Doug McMillin Louisiana State University
Rajnish Mehra UC Santa Barbara
Robert Mellman J.P. Morgan
Robert Merton Harvard University
Laurence Meyer Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC
Atif Mian University of Chicago
Gregory Miller Suntrust Banks, Inc.
Robert Moffitt Johns Hopkins University
Stephen Morris Princeton University
Dale Mortensen Northwestern University
Giuseppe Moscarini Yale University
Tobias Moskowitz University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Stefan Nagel Stanford
Maurice Obstfeld University of California, Berkeley
Lee Ohanian UCLA
Maureen O’Hara Cornell University
Stavros Panageas University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Dimitris Papanikolaou Northwestern University
Robert Parry President & CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Retired
Lubos Pastor University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Lasse H. Pedersen NYU
Monika Piazzesi Stanford
Keith Poole University of California, San Diego
Giorgio Primiceri Northwestern University
Valerie Ramey University of California, San Diego
Enrichetta Ravina Columbia University
Esteban Rossi-Hansberg Princeton University
Michael Rothschild Princeton University
Tano Santos Columbia Business School
Ulrike Schaede University of California, San Diego
Richard Schmalensee MIT
Martin Schneider Stanford
Kermit Schoenholtz NYU Stern School of Business
Jay Shanken Emory
Robert Shiller Yale University
Hyun Shin Princeton University
Stephen Shore Johns Hopkins University
Costis Skiadas Northwestern University
Matthew Slaughter Dartmouth College
James F. Smith Kenan-Flagler Business School, UNC-Chapel Hill
Chester Spatt Carnegie Mellon University
James H. Stock Harvard
Rene Stulz The Ohio State University
Amir Sufi University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Joseph Swanson Northwestern University
Vefa Tarhan Loyola University Chicago
Edwin M. Truman Peterson Institute for International Economics
Harald Uhlig University of Chicago
Andrey Ukhov Northwestern University
Sergio Urzua Northwestern University
Chris Varvares Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC
Pietro Veronesi University of Chicago
Paul Wachtel New York University, Stern School of Business
Richard Walker Northwestern University
Mark Watson Princeton
Shang-jin Wei Columbia
David Weil Brown University
Pierre-Olivier Weill UCLA Economics
Burton Weisbrod Northwestern University
William Wheaton MIT
Michael Whinston Northwestern University
Mirko Wiederholt Northwestern University
Mark Witte Northwestern University
Tiemen Wouteren Johns Hopkins University
Jonathan Wright Johns Hopkins University
Wei Xiong Princeton University
Stanley Zin New York University