Do you ever get tired of Washington’s broken promises and failures and having to pay for Wall Street mismanagement? Each time a bank fails, we the American people step in and pay for the failure while Washington and Wall Street are never held accountable for the mismanagement. We stood by and watched this play out in 2008 when the government bailed out the banking system with our money. The sad thing is it is happening again with no recourse of accountability for the mismanagement of the banks, the lack of Federal Reserve oversight or gross mismanagement, Wall Street’s greed, or even our Washington elected officials who continuously cover up the failures. Meanwhile Wall Street and its rich cronies get richer while working families like us struggle.
The Federal Reserve is the world’s largest and most powerful central bank and is the largest federal agency in American History. The Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet 822% since 2009 with a $8.3 trillion dollar value. The increase is largely due to the purchasing of hundreds of millions of dollars of mortgage-back securities which are very risky. The Federal Reserve generally purchases short-term U.S. Treasuries. They buy and sell short-term government securities to change the federal fund rate which is the short-term interest rate. They also control the money supply and drive short-term interest rates lower and higher. The Federal Reserve’s risky investing practices have provided a $1.3 trillion dollar loss of our taxpayer money last year. That is a $1.3 trillion dollar lost in one year!
You might ask how does the Federal Reserve get by with no accountability or recourse for the continued failures within the banking and financial systems? Or how in the world does the Federal Reserve continue to have no reform for the continuous historical failures? The answers are quite simple but very complex as most major government agencies, more than 30, have an independent inspector general to oversee transparency and accountability. An independent inspector general is most often presidentially appointed, and senate-confirmed. The Federal Reserve does not have an independent inspector general; it has its own inspector general who reports directly to the Federal Reserve Board. In addition to the lack of an independent inspector general, the Federal Reserve is not required to comply with standard banking practices that regulate American financial institutions. There is only one way to fix this broken system and provide oversight and accountability. The Federal Reserve needs new operating regulations and standards, and this can only be accomplished through Congressional passage.
Senator Rick Scott has taken care of these new standards of operation by introducing his new bill, Regular Order for Investments, ROI, of the Federal Reserve Act. He stated the new bill “would end these bad practices and force the Fed to consider the impact of its decisions on hard-working families so this never happens again.” Senator Scott also stated “it is insane to think that one of the largest financial institutions in the world would be allowed to exempt itself from Generally Accepted Accounting Practices and mark-to-market valuations. My bill would mandate that the Fed comply with both of these standards.”
Hopefully, Congress will demand accountability and punish gross mismanagement of The Federal Reserve. The American people deserve so much better than high inflation, high interest rate and the loss of trillions of hardworking American money. You can help with this accountability by checking the box next to the name that you believe stands up for the hardworking American people of this great nation. Please go vote your vote counts and is important to the longevity of our free life. I will leave you with those thoughts and that concludes this week’s edition of The Straight Truth With Mary Ann Hutton.