Live Blogging The House Hearing On Ron Paul's Bill (HR 1207) To Audit The Federal Reserve (Testimony Begins @ 9 AM EST)

Sep 25, 2009 at 4:29 AM
DailyBail in audit the fed, bailout, bernanke, congress, federal reserve, federal reserve, federal reserve investigation, greenspan, ron paul, ron paul, transparency

We'll see you here at 9 AM.

The hearing has begun...Our notes are inside...refresh the story every few minutes to see updates.

Opening statements:

Barney Frank: Hey Ron Paul isn't the only one who wants a Fed audit...I've wanted it for awhile...and anyone who says otherwise, is just plain stupid.

Ron Paul: We've been fighting for this for many years...and nothing happened...but now I'm Mr. popular and everyone loves me...where were you fools last Fall when I was running for President...American people are the difference this time...look forward to a positive hearing..

Melvin Watt:  Damn, this bill is popular...my constituents won't stop bugging me about it...3 issues...by the way, where are the doughnuts?...of course we don't want control of monetary policy...

Spencer Bacchus:  You fools better not invoke regulation 13:3...I've said bailout 3 times in 60 seconds...the Fed OWNS all the damn debt...they are buying (monetizing) more than 50% of all the debt offered...one gov't agency bailing out another...who is going to bail out the US government...?

BF:  Interrupts...you're wasting time for your whole side Bacchus...

Hensarling:  "This is not your father's Federal Reserve...their powers must be constrained...serial institutional bailouts are not good...Ron Paul is god, basically, and the rest of you should recognize it..."

Grayson: The Fed needs to be accountable to the American people...this is not a left-rght issue...it's an American issue...this bill was first introduced in 1983, when I was still in school...Ron Paul never gives up...

Jenkins: I love accountability...if anyone says otherwise, they're a Commie...

Frank:  Nothing in here about 13:3

Alvarez Speaks: (I thought it was a female at first...work on the voice, Alvarez)..."We're already very transparent...we DON'T NEED THIS STINKIN' BILL...you people are crazy...we're giving you more info than we've ever given anyone...we give Congress plenty of details except...and GAO is already up our Tucchus with their audits...14 audits underway...voice getting higher again...really, you clowns just want to control monetary policy, and we aren't going to give you that chance...markets will crash...you are all evil...where are the doughnuts..?...your audit will chill internal debate...and no one will borrow at the discount window anymore...stop crashing our party...

Frank: Did the Bush-Paulson criminal regime agree with your treatment and approach to the AIG bailout and Bear Stearns bailout...you used 13:3 with Bush's support...did you feel that your independence was under threat by that behavior..?...

Ron Paul: "How did you fools become the arbiters of 'public interest'...?"

Ron Paul: "What exactly are you hiding?"

Alvarez: "Stop asking so many quetions..."

Watt:  "I know absolutely NOTHING about the internet...http, colon, dot, underscore, html, umm, umm, umm...the difference between a CPA audit and a GAO audit, I presume GAO doesn't require numbers..."

Alvarez:  "GAO audits really are a pain in the ass, and now you fools want to get involved with an actual audit of the numbers...that's not fair or cool at all, bros..."

RECESS for a House vote

Since Alzarez does NOT want you to know what the Fed does with YOUR MONEY, we think you should call his office repeatedly today and tell his assistant just how you feel about her rat bastard boss, and Fed transparency.  His number again is 202-452-3583.

Hearings RESUME

Unknow Rep: "Like a bad doctor who hides info from his patient...wht the hell are you guys hiding?"..."What about these foreign central bank swaps...are these CB's then required to buy Treasuries...helping us fund our debt...?..."

Alvarez:  "We provide updates on our website, damnit, stop asking abou this....as far as our balance sheet, you have no idea..."

Moore: "Tell us about the freaking collateral...HAVE YOU LOST MONEY?"

Alvarez:  "The collateral is basically all trash, but we haven't lost a dime...as far as you know..."

Brad Sherman:  "When you push TARP 2 on Congress, telling us that otherwise we'll be eating rats in the street, should we fall for your lies again...?

Sherman:  "Tell me about the damn collateral...what is legal under 13:3...?"

Ron Paul:  "Time to talk about the Fed's mandate...and failure...stable dollar, stable prices, full employment...nothing but FAILURE...this doesn't make any sense...we need more oversight and transparency, NOT more power to the Fed!"

Ron Paul: "These deal with foreign central banks...we have to know about this...it's our responsibility...the Fed should not be destroying the dollar...you are a government unto yourselves!"

Unknown Fed apologist: "Why the bait and switch with Congress on TARP...supposed to remove assets but instead you decided to inject capital instead"

Alvarez: "That was Paulson and Treasury who made that decision...not us..."

Garrett:  "We already have the authority to second-guess the FED, do we not...?...So what you're saying is that we can second guess you as long as we don't have all the facts..."

Garrett:  " Are the Fed governors truly independent...?..."

Alvarez:  "If you audit us then it will squelch deate and discussion among Fed Governors...ooh, scary."

Foster: "I'm concerned about Fed archiving...are you destroying documents...?..."

Alvarez:  "Not that you know of..."

Michell Bachman:  "Let's talk about the Bloomberg case...FOIA request for transparency..."

Alvarez:  "We WILL BE APPEALING BOTH RULINGS NEXT WEEK..."

Editor's note:  F YOU, Alvarez!  Stop fighting our search for truth...you cannot stop the people

Bachmann:  "Your discount window excuse (that banks won't use it for fear of stigma)...I'm not buying it"

Editor's Note:  Bachmann doesn't know finance.

Barney Frank:  Fed official have appeard before us 28 times in the past 12 months...so in fairness, they do make themselves available for testimony...

Wilson: "Give me some history on the Fed...some background...how many banks in the Fed?...how are the FED governors approved...?

Alvarez:  "They have 14 year terms..."

Wilson: "Back to Ms. Bachmann's Qs on 13:3...what does it take to enact 13:3...what type of exigent circumstances need to exist?...did this occur with Bear Stearns?...Describe the process involving 13:3 and Bear."

Alvarez:  "13:3 needs 5 votes to be put into place...we convened a board meeting..."

Wilson:  "Was there a meeting about 13:3 and Lehman?"

Alvarez:  "oh, hell yeah, we were meeting about Lehman..."

Hensarling: "Let's talk more about the discount window and the STIGMA...what might we be missing here because there was no stigma for TARP participants...?..."

Editor's Note:  Hensarling is extremely impressive...

Alvarez:  "Blah, Blah, Blah...TARP was different than the discount window issue..."

Hensarling:  "Let's tak more about when you choose to enact 13:3..."

Alvarez:  "Whenever we want to..."

Hensarling: "Before giving AIG all that money, why not get Resolution Authority so that you could negotiate instead of paying PAR?

Alvarez: "We couldn't..."

Barney Frank leaves to go vote...

Ron Paul: "I'm back from voting and you're lucky because I now have lots of time and Qs..."

Ron Paul:  "Let's talk about the Fed's involvement in GOLD MARKETS as well as teh CB currency SWAP agreements..."

Grayson: " Has the Federal Reserve ever tried to manipulate the stock market?..."

Alvarez:  "Not that I'm aware..."

Grayson: "Is it within the Fed's legal authority to manipulate the markets?"

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL...GRAYSON IS PLAYING WITH THIS TOOL

Grayson: "That's not what I said...YES or NO?"

Grayson: "Does the Fed actually possess all teh GOLD on their balance sheet"

Alvarez: "I believe so..."

GRAYSON IS RIPPNG THIS GUY...WOW...I CAN"T KEEP UP....

Grayson: "Who executes the Fed's trades...is there front-running of these trades...or insider trading...?

Alvarez: "Primary broker dealers..."

Alvarez: " JP Morgan"

Grayson: "Shouldn't we be allowed to aduit this?"

Grayson: "WHO GOT THE MONEY?"

Grayson's TIME HAS EXPIRED...SIMPLY AWESOME PRFORMANCE

Royce: "Let's talk about the issue of Moral Hazard"

Alvarez: " We have it under control...trust us..."

Royce: "Volcker is King...why are you not paying attention to what he says about boom-bust cycles and increased Moral Hazard?"

TIME RUNS OUT...NO ANSWERS FROM ALVAREZ

Realtively boring discussion with unknown Congressman...

Now, a 2nd boring discussion in a row...Grayson was phenomenal...Does the Fed influence the stock market?...a question we have all wanted answered for so long...does the the PPT work to boost stock prices?  His questions about possible front-running of Fed trades by JP Morgan and other broker-dealers were unexpected by me...He hit the guy with a hammer, and then kept hitting...i can't wait to get that portion of video...

ALVAREZ is now gone...

From MISES we now have Thomas Woods, jr...he is reading his opening statement...wow, this guy is good...great delivery...excellent use of sarcasm...he just took a nice swipe at Goldman...mentions that 75% of American people support an AUDIT OF THE FED...

Watt: He's not happy AT ALL about the sarcasm displayed by Woods...this is getting snippy...he thinks Woods was political but he completely misses the point...Woods is anti-political and anti-Fed...

Ron Paul: "Let's talk about Fed secrecy and its effect on policy...does the secrecy encourage confidence or is it the opposite...does Fed secrecy hurt confidence?"

Woods:  "Without a doubt it hurts confidence...and then he provides several examples..."

Now in a much longer, philosophical discussion of the Fed, secrecy, policy...plus a nice mention of how the FED owns the economics profession...

Barney Frank:  He takes a shot at Woods for the sarcasm and attempts again to demonstrate that he BARNEY FRANK, has supported an audit of the Fed since the time of Christ and even before...WOW, he just spent 90 seconds talking about how he should get credit...this is the 2nd time he has tried to demonstrate his support...this is getting extremely snippy...this will be another great video clip...now an interruption about audience props...i wonder what it was...some kind of sign...

Michelle Bachmann:  Wonders why and how the FED could possibly be fighting transparency...why is the FED panicked, she wonders?...

Woods: He won't speculate with any concrete examples...but he hints that they must be doing some really questionable things...but he makes the correct point that "how are we supposed to know, since they won't tell us?"

Bachmann: "I am concerned with the Fed's balance sheet, teh overnight loans, the collateral...it makes a lot of us very nervous..."

Bachmann: "Would it be prudent for Congress to tighten up 13:3 and limit their scope of possible action...would this be prudent?...i was shocked when I finally read 13:3 after TARP was passed...i think it's frightening to learn how powerful the FED's potential scope of behavior..."

BRAD SHERMAN's TURN:  Discussing 13:3...says that ALVAREZ's testimony was SCARY...any loan in any amount would be allowed under 13:3 just as long as the FED board was comfortable with the terms of the loan..."are these trillions in loans really safe and secure...what is the collateral...?"

The hearings have now concluded...the final 5 minutes were a free discussion between Sherman, Paul and Woods...really good stuff but impossible to transcribe...

Thanks for following along...

Hope you enjoyed the show...

 

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Article originally appeared on The Daily Bail (http://dailybail.com/).