Kucinich: It's Time to Audit the Fed

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following video and statement in support of H.R. 459 which would finally allow the Government Accountability Office to audit the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed). Congressman Kucinich has long supported auditing the Fed and successfully won a partial audit in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

See the video here. The full text of the video follows.

"The House of Representatives is considering H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. H.R. 459 would enable the Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.) to conduct a full audit of the Federal Reserve, something it cannot do under existing law. Finally, after trillions of dollars, secret deals and Wall Street bailouts - a thorough audit.

"Recent events remind us how important monetary policy is to our economy. The ever-deepening scandal involving the fraudulent manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") reminds us that the international financial system is cloaked in shadow for the benefit of the banks, at the expense of the people. Remember, it took a lawsuit by Bloomberg News to force the Fed to reveal that it had created more than $7 trillion to rescue the banks during the financial crisis.

"We already know that the Federal Reserve had knowledge of the Libor scheme, at least as far back as 2007. During the financial crises of 2008 and in the aftermath, the Federal Reserve extended extraordinary support to financial institutions that crashed the economy with reckless speculation, and on that support many of the firms made billions in profit and paid obscene bonuses. I fought hard to have the partial audit included in the Dodd-Frank and we learned about some of the Fed's responses to the fiscal crisis, but we need to learn the full extent of the Fed's activities.

"The Fed should not be permitted to operate in the dark without oversight by Congress and accountability to the people. The American people deserve no less than a full and complete audit.

"The Federal Reserve wants to stay independent; independent of the Constitution, independent of Congressional oversight and independent of the rule of law. We can't let that happen. It's time to audit the fed."