Sen. Rand Paul is threatening to hold up the nomination of Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve unless the Senate votes on his Fed transparency bill. And, a source had revealed that Rand Paul has already informed Senate leadership of his intentions.
“As part of Senate consideration of the Janet Yellen nomination to be Chair of the Federal Reserve, I will request a vote on my bipartisan Federal Reserve Transparency Act, S. 209. The American people deserve transparency from the federal reserve and the federal government as a whole,” Paul said in a statement following the reports.
A Senate Democratic aide said on Friday morning that the possibility of Paul, alone, to block the nomination “should not be overstated.” Senator Paul, in total, needs 40 senators to back his effort to block Yellen’s nomination, without which, Senate leadership could simply steamroll his effort.
Even though Senate hearings have not yet even been scheduled, the Democratic aide said the Senate leadership is confident the nomination will succeed, despite Rand Paul.
Paul plans to formally put the hold in place next week when the Senate is back in session. The mainstream media is already trying to scare Americans by linking Paul’s potential hold up of Yellen with Wall Street pull-backs Friday.
“Markets gave back some of their earlier gains on the report,” CNBC reported. But the market slump Friday was due to economic news that was not favorable, rather than an anonymous source quoted in a report. A report released Friday showed U.S. consumer sentiment dropped in October to its lowest level since the end of last year.
The senator’s bill would mandate a complete audit of the Federal Reserve, which may very well end the corporate crony party fueled on cheap, printed money that will ultimately cause inflation. The Federal Reserve has been printing money to buy up U.S. Treasury securities, known as quantitive easing, with the logic that unattractive interest rates will force investors into equity investments, therefore driving economic growth.
Wall Street has been raking in the trillions, literally, while the working American savers are hosed in the process. With interest rates as low as they have been artificially kept for years following the crisis, the American worker cannot earn a return on savings that even keeps pace with inflation, greatly harming the ability to save a nest egg for retirement.
Furthermore, although many would disagree, the practice dubbed QE3 has not succeeded in sparking economic growth, which is why the Fed is now stuck in a “catch 22” and cannot terminate the program. Janet Yellen is a fan of “easy” money monetary policy, and unlike Lawrence Summers who withdrew his name from consideration, would be tickled pick to rubber stamp further printing press operations.
According to Sen. Rand Paul’s website, his bill is a version of legislation advocated by his father, the former Texas congressman and presidential candidate, Ron Paul. The two libertarian-minded, free market advocators have been fighting to audit the Fed for years. Last presidential election cycle, Ron Paul succeeded in altering the Republican Party platform, which now includes an audit the Fed provision in the mainstream party principles.
