WashPo: Rand Paul Has a New Conspiracy Theory About The Fed

[r3volution 3.0]

hxxp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/11/rand-paul-has-a-new-conspiracy-theory-about-the-fed/

The fact is, the Dodd-Frank financial reform already audited the Fed's past emergency lending, and requires it to disclose any such future lending, too. Not only that, but the rest of the Fed's balance sheet is already audited by the Government Accountability Office, the Office of the Inspector General, and independent private auditors.

Which are all subject to the following restrictions:

Audits of the Board and Federal reserve banks may not include—

(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;


(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market operations;


(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or


(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to clauses (1)–(3) of this subsection.

...which means they're totally impotent and worthless - the mere illusion of oversight. Rand's bill removes those restrictions, allowing for an audit of the Fed's monetary policy: which is the only thing worth auditing (contra, for instance, how much they pay the janitors at the Marriner Eccles building).

But here's the "conspiracy theory."

But Paul sees something more nefarious going on than people he disagrees with exercising their First Amendment rights. "The Fed, with unlimited power to print money," Paul says, "now prints that money to lobby against Congressional oversight." That's quite an accusation. If it were true that the Fed was printing money to basically bribe Congress with, it'd be one of the biggest scandals in recent memory.

Here's what Rand actually said:

It is alarming that the Federal Reserve, which was granted Monopoly money-making power, is now specifically trying to stop my legislation. The Fed, with unlimited ability to print money, now prints that money to lobby against Congressional oversight.

Rand could be talking about informal influence, but it does kind of sound like he's talking about the Fed actually paying lobbyists. Surely that can't be?!

From the Fed's website:

Office of Board Members

• Michelle A. Smith, Assistant to the Board and Director
• Linda L. Robertson, Assistant to the Board
• Lucretia M. Boyer, Assistant to the Board
• David W. Skidmore, Assistant to the Board
• William English, Senior Special Adviser to the Board
• Jennifer C. Gallagher, Special Assistant to the Board
• Trevor A. Reeve, Special Adviser to the Chair
• Winthrop P. Hambley, Senior Adviser
• Adrienne D. Hurt, Adviser

From Her Profile at John's Hopkins University:

Linda L. Robertson joined Johns Hopkins in September 2002 in the new position of vice president for government, community and public affairs. In June 2003, she was named to the additional title of vice president for government affairs and community relations at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Robertson's position was created to provide a strategic focus for Johns Hopkins' relationships with neighboring communities; with local, state and federal governments; and with broader public audiences nationally and internationally. She is responsible for government and community affairs for Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System, and for communications and public affairs for the university. Before coming to Johns Hopkins, Robertson had spent more than 25 years working on federal legislative issues in both government and private sector positions. She spent eight years in senior positions at the Treasury Department, working for three secretaries: Lloyd Bentsen, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. She joined the department in 1993 as a deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs, rising to assistant secretary for legislative and public liaison and then senior adviser to the secretary. She led the Clinton administration's congressional efforts to replenish the International Monetary Fund and to provide U.S. funding for Third World debt relief. She led the effort to enact the first overhaul of federal financial services industry law in 60 years and coordinated Treasury's legislative efforts to restructure the Internal Revenue Service. She won the department's highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton Award, traditionally reserved for the secretary and deputy secretary. In 1999, she received the Ida B. Well-Barnett Achievement Award, one of six awards given to women leaders throughout the federal government for exceptional service. At other times in her career, Robertson has worked as a House of Representatives staff member and as a lobbyist focused on tax, energy, technology, finance and corporate issues. She is a 1976 graduate of Southern Illinois University, and earned a law degree at the University of Tulsa in 1979. She also received a master of law degree in taxation from Georgetown University in 1986.

Uh oh....


And a search US Senate's Lobbying Discloure Act Database under the name "Linda Robertson" reveals that this person, who is currently a paid employee of the Federal Reserve, has been a registered lobbyist since 2001 for various organizations including.....(put your drink down and take a seat)

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ENRON!

(Yes, that Enron)

Okay WashPo, ball's in your court.

P.S. Mind you that this required about 15 minutes of research. I'll wager the Fed's lobbying effort does not consist of this lone woman.

 

[Matt Collins]

These guys are fighting hard

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Here's an old Bloomberg article about it:

Fed Intends to Hire Lobbyist in Campaign to Buttress Its Image

By Robert Schmidt - June 5, 2009 00:01 EDT

June 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve intends to hire a veteran lobbyist as it seeks to counter skepticism in Congress about the central bank’s growing power over the U.S. financial system, people familiar with the matter said.

Linda Robertson currently handles government, community and public affairs at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and headed the Washington lobbying office of Enron Corp., the energy trading company that collapsed in 2002 after an accounting scandal. She was also an adviser to all three of the Clinton administration’s Treasury secretaries.

Robertson would help the Fed manage relations with lawmakers seeking greater oversight of a central bank that has used emergency powers to prevent Wall Street’s demise. While she wasn’t tied to Enron’s fraud, her association with the firm may raise questions, analysts said.