Paul-Martin Foss at the Carl Menger Center for the Study of Money and Banking has penned a nice retort to Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, who recently criticized Rand Paul’s introduction of an “Audit the Fed” bill in the US Senate.
“Mr. Fisher apparently has forgotten that that same untrustworthy Congress created the Federal Reserve System. Perhaps he would prefer that such an untrustworthy creation as the Federal Reserve should be done away with, and the charters to the regional Federal Reserve Banks be revoked? We at the Carl Menger Center would be more than happy to work with him toward that goal, undoing the calamitous mistake Congress made in 1913.
Mr. Fisher has also forgotten that the Constitution grants Congress the power to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin Notice that it is only Congress that has the power to regulate the value of the coinage, not the Executive Branch, and not an unelected agency such as the Federal Reserve. If Mr. Fisher has a problem with that, he is welcome to push for a Constitutional amendment to change that.
The Constitution also does not give Congress the power to emit bills of credit. Nor is Congress therefore allowed to delegate that non-existent power to an Executive Branch agency such as the Fed. Not that pesky things like laws have ever stopped the Fed from doing what it feels like doing”.
