Alan Grayson among others have been spot on recently with calls to open up the books of the Federal Reserve and show exactly what they are doing/have done with various asset swaps and bank injections both through its normal discount window operations and with other positions the Fed has taken through foreign currency injections and its accumulation of US Treasuries, which we are paying interest on. What I cannot believe is that the call to arms on this issue isn't louder and more public as it's our money being given to these crooks and then kept secret from us, thereby preventing action to be taken.
Update: The Fed is ruining the country through secretive behaviors and operations that essentially screw the middle class from making informed economic decisions or by costing us more taxpayer money for the benefit of the multi-nationals.
The very first issue that needs to be immediately exposed is discount window operations by the Federal Reserve. I think we should all be entitled to know exactly when our bank needs to borrow money from the Fed so that we can take appropriate action. I mean, if we knew my bank needed to borrow money from the Fed, maybe we may want to change banks, but right now the secrecy of the whole process prevents us from making an informed decision. Even if it's 6 months or a year later, that would be helpful, as I doubt the bank is fully recovered by then and we would at least know that the bank was in trouble recently.
We also must know exactly what assets the Federal Reserve takes on in terms of its asset purchases, as eventually they are going to have to sell these and it is only fair that we know if we are holding something similar that may go down in value if the Fed unloads a big position. I know that it would benefit all Americans more if these asset positions were made public so that we at least have the opportunity to hedge our positions and prevent our investments from falling too much from Fed actions.
Finally, someone please tell me why we let the Fed buy dollars from the US Treasury at cost (about 4 cents per bill) and then use those dollars to buy US Treasuries, which we then have to pay them interest on? Seriously, we are getting majorly ripped off on this trade. I mean, the Fed can buy a $100 bill from the Treasury for 4 cents, then use that $100 to buy a 10-year Treasury yielding 3.5%, which means that the Fed just made $3.50 on a .04 investment. Man would I like to be able to get those kinds of returns. And remember, that $3.50 is paid by you an me taxpayer and is multiplied by several million. This most of all must be exposed and now.
In conclusion, we absolutely must open the books and operations of the Federal Reserve to the public now for a complete audit (in addition to the one they do every year now) so that the public can know exactly who and what are benefiting/needing the Fed to help them. This opening up of the Fed's books will also allow our actual ELECTED OFFICIALS (as opposed to the non-elected Fed officials who have no accountability to the American people) to better make decisions on the economic policies of the US, which should bring us more prosperity for years to come.
Link to Wiki with Fed Balance Sheet
Link to Fed website