[tommyjbehnke]

Professor Herbener,

Hope all has been well with you. Great to finally be back on Liberty Classroom!

Question RE: Federal Reserve audits – I know that the current audits are very limited in scope. It’s my understanding that the GAO has the right to audit the Fed’s loans when the Fed invokes Section 13(3) — the “emergency lending/lender of last resort” provision. I believe this change to the law was made with Dodd-Frank. So…

A.) Is that why we received info. on the loans they made during the 2008 recession?
B.) Do we really know anything about the Fed’s monetary policy decisions? We don’t know who the Fed’s giving money to most of the time, but do we a least know how much fiduciary media it’s creating through open market operations?

Don’t we already receive all that information already? There’s just a 2 year lag?

In other words…what will an audit actually accomplish? Will it just be getting rid of the lag?

Many thanks for your help!
Tommy

[jmherbener]

Bloomberg News sued under the freedom of information act to obtain the list of recipients of Fed loans during the downturn.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/08/25/federal-reserve-foiled-by-foia-ordered-to-cough-up-loan-recipients/

Here’s the bloomberg story mentioning Dodd-Frank:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-12-01/fed-names-recipients-of-3-3-trillion-of-aid-during-u-s-financial-crisis

Here is a comprehensive account of Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill:

http://www.ronpaul.com/audit-the-federal-reserve-hr-1207/

[tommyjbehnke]

Thank you so much for those links.

But after 2010, wasn’t the law changed, mandating that the Fed release “individual records for discount window and open market operation transactions…with a two-year lag?”
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42079.pdf

If so, then what will this Audit the Fed legislation really accomplish?

[jmherbener]

Here is the text of HR 1207 in the 111th Congress:

https://www.opencongress.org/bill/hr1207-111/text

Threat of the passage of HR 1207 led to the legal change you cite. It seems reasonable to conclude that the audit the fed bill would go further. For example, it stipulates the Federal Reserve District Banks also be audited. Moreover, it pits the Comptroller of the Currency against the Fed as a check on the Fed.

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