Getting Edumacated

I've recently been attempting to learn more about how our economy works and I have come across so many things that confuse and infuriate me about practices and policies that squander our country's wealth but are allowed to continue unchecked. Things that, if more were widely known about them, I think would confuse and infuriate everyone else who loves this country too. I used to believe that our country was kept relatively safe from corruption by a series of checks and balances. I am realizing that so many of these have already been eroded long ago, leaving us with a system devoid of reason, fairness or control.

I was excited to learn about a bill designed to target the source of some of these corrupt practices, the Federal Reserve. The same mysterious Federal Reserve that is mentioned daily in the news but that few Americans truly understand. I didn't. I was shocked to learn that the bank that runs our entire economy is not a government agency at all. It's run by private bankers who have no built-in incentive to make choices that are in the best interest of anyone but themselves. They may inflate and deflate our money at will. And they don't even have to allow anyone to audit their books.

Bill HR 1207 would open the Fed up for audit. As it stands now, many Fed meetings are secret and audit is not allowed. I shudder to think of the tumult that an audit would cause and the staunch resistance it would likely create on its way to implementation. But the thought of the status quo continuing for another 10, 20, 50 years is even worse. This isn't the first time such a bill was proposed. Unfortunately, 1993's version was brushed aside by Alan Greenspan, the Fed president, and denounced by President Clinton as dangerous to the stability of our economy.

Learn more about the Fed below and see all the representatives and senators who support the bill to audit the Fed here.