Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell came out against “Audit The Fed” legislation gaining momentum on Capitol Hill, saying Monday that it wasn’t necessary because the central bank is sufficiently transparent.
Powell warned that the legislation “would subject monetary policy to undue political pressure and place new limits on the Fed’s ability to respond to future crisis.”
“These proposals are based on the assertion that the Federal Reserve operates in secrecy and was not accountable for its actions during the crisis,” he said, describing them as coming from “a perspective that is in violent conflict with the facts.”
He said that making Fed policy open to Government Accountability Office examination, as proposed legislation seeks to do, would undermine the central bank’s independence and yield little public benefit.
“It is important to note that GAO investigations are not the financial audits that many assume them to be,” he commented.
Powell also remarked that the Fed’s financial statements are “a matter of public record, and are audited annually by independent, outside auditors under the watchful eye of the Fed’s independent Inspector General.” He said GAO analysis would “examine strategy, judgments and day-to-day decision making” and, by law, issue policy recommendations—a scenario he described as being negative.
“Audit the Fed” legislation has over one hundred co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle, in both chambers, as The Sentinel noted last week.
One version of it, introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), would force the central bank to allow the GAO to examine discount window operations and transactions with foreign central banks, in addition to policy deliberation.
In 2011, a Fed audit championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)–a self-described democratic-socialist and possible 2016 presidential contender–revealed that the central bank extended $16 trillion in “near-zero interest” credit during last decade’s global financial meltdown to private companies, including foreign banks and corporations.
It also revealed, Sanders office concluded, an inability of Fed officials “to deal with conflicts of interest.”
“For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed’s board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed,” the senator’s office said in a press release.
“In another disturbing finding, the GAO said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given bailout funds,” it added.
Powell claimed that initiatives to subject the Fed to additional scrutiny are based on arguments that it has been “reckless, throwing money ineffectively at problems and making loans to uncreditworthy borrowers.”
“On the contrary,” he countered “the Fed’s lending was targeted to institutions, markets, and sectors that proved central to arresting the crisis. Loans were extended based on the same terms that the Federal Reserve has always applied–the borrowers must be solvent, the loans must be secured, and an appropriate interest rate must be charged.”
However, a report issued by the Treasury Department late last year, as The Sentinel reported, warned that “excessive risk-taking” by US corporations poses a problem.
Richard Berner, a Treasury official who oversaw the report said the financial system “has continued to recover and strengthen” and that threats to the system “are moderate.”
“But that relatively benign backdrop is no cause for complacency,” he added. The report noted that several measures indicate debt is at historically high levels and that safeguards are still lacking.
“High-yield debt accounts for 24 percent of total corporate debt issued since 2008, compared with 14 percent during past cycles, and low-rated credits dominated new issuance volumes over the past year,” the report noted. Its authors also said that that two-thirds of credit issued during the current boom-bust cycle lack strict legal agreements. In previous cycles, they said, the same gauge was at 33 percent.
Between the global financial collapse in 2008 and late October, the Fed accumulated $4.5 trillion in assets through quantitative easing programs aimed at loosening credit.
Any sort of “Audit the Fed” legislation would probably have to win over a veto-proof majority to have a shot at becoming law. As The Hill noted last week, President Obama “would likely veto it.”
The maintenance of the central bank’s independence is, after all, strongly supported by financial elites. As Sen. Sanders described when he was pushing his own audit—one that did not include an insight into the internal discussions currently sought by Sen. Paul—attempting to gain insight into the Federal Reserve is an uphill battle.
“You’re taking on all of Wall Street, you’re taking on the Fed, obviously, and unfortunately you seem to be taking on the White House, as well. And that’s a tough group to beat,” he said.
