"Audit the Fed" Gets "Gutted"
Ian Mathias

There's nothing left, it's been gutted," Ron Paul laments, offering our last bit today. Unfortunately, he's referring to HR1207, the "Audit the Fed" bill he's been championing this year. According to Paul, Mel Watt (chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology) took out "just about everything" when preparing the bill for House vote. According to Bloomberg, Paul believes the bill "has been stripped of provisions that would remove Fed exemptions from audits of transactions with foreign central banks, monetary policy deliberations, transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee and communications between the Board, the reserve banks and staff."

Paul says he plans on drafting an amendment to the bill that would restore the original language... but until further notice, the "Audit the Fed" outlook isn't pretty.

In what can only be a cosmic coincidence, we note that Mel Watt is a North Carolina representative. Specifically, he represents District 12... which just so happens to be the HQ for Bank of America, the biggest beneficiary of opaque Federal Reserve lending practices. Hey just for kicks, lets look at the top donors for Watt's 2008 re-election, as listed on his own Web site:

1 Wachovia Corp.
2 American Bankers Assn.
3 Bank of America
4 American Express

What are the odds?

Heh, and now that we've inched our 5 Min. toes outside political correctness, why not cross the line altogether... Is this the most disgustingly gerrymandered district you've ever seen?

All right... we'll stop noting all these bizarre coincidences. You might get the wrong idea.

Ian Mathias is managing editor of The 5 Min. Forecast and AgoraFinancial.com. We discovered Ian working as a full time rock climbing guide and writing on the side. As it turns out, markets and global economics can be extreme too... at least enough to keep him around. Since working for Agora Financial, respected media outlets including Forbes.com, the Associated Press, Yahoo, and MSN Money have syndicated his writing. He received his BA from Loyola College in Maryland and is currently studying writing at the graduate level.

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