FED-up?

These Republican presidential debates are really idiotic and demeaning-- to the candidates (who deserve to be demeaned) and to the viewers (who don't, at least not the ones watching on TV; the ones in the live audience are part of what's demeaning about these circuses). But one debate that I really would love to see is a mano a mano duke out between The Hermanator and Ron Paul. Subject: The Fed. What, you ask, does a third rate pizza huckster know about The Fed. Well, probably not much, but he's a former regional Fed president (maybe) and a big time Fed defender. Dave Neiwert long ago exposed Ron Paul for the dangerous and extremist right-wing fanatic that he is, but that doesn't mean that Paul can't dance circles around the pizza guy when it comes to the Fed. He can. And that debate would be a lot more worthwhile than the one we see between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry trying to prove who has the bigger weiner while the rest of the 7 dwarves chirp in the background. And they should have that debate soon because-- as Paul could easily explain-- the Fed is out of control (again). An even better source, though, is Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT):

A new audit of the Federal Reserve released today detailed widespread conflicts of interest involving directors of its regional banks.

"The most powerful entity in the United States is riddled with conflicts of interest," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said after reviewing the Government Accountability Office report. The study required by a Sanders Amendment to last year's Wall Street reform law examined Fed practices never before subjected to such independent, expert scrutiny.

The GAO detailed instance after instance of top executives of corporations and financial institutions using their influence as Federal Reserve directors to financially benefit their firms, and, in at least one instance, themselves.  "Clearly it is unacceptable for so few people to wield so much unchecked power," Sanders said. "Not only do they run the banks, they run the institutions that regulate the banks."

Sanders said he will work with leading economists to develop legislation to restructure the Fed and bar the banking industry from picking Fed directors. "This is exactly the kind of outrageous behavior by the big banks and Wall Street that is infuriating so many Americans," Sanders said.

The corporate affiliations of Fed directors from such banking and industry giants as General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, and Lehman Brothers pose "reputational risks" to the Federal Reserve System, the report said. Giving the banking industry the power to both elect and serve as Fed directors creates "an appearance of a conflict of interest," the report added.

The 108-page report found that at least 18 specific current and former Fed board members were affiliated with banks and companies that received emergency loans from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.

In the dry and understated language of auditors, the report noted that there are no restrictions in Fed rules on directors communicating concerns about their respective banks to the staff of the Federal Reserve. It also said many directors own stock or work directly for banks that are supervised and regulated by the Federal Reserve.  The rules, which the Fed has kept secret, let directors tied to banks participate in decisions involving how much interest to charge financial institutions and how much credit to provide healthy banks and institutions in "hazardous" condition. Even when situations arise that run afoul of Fed's conflict rules and waivers are granted, the GAO said the waivers are kept hidden from the public.

The report by the non-partisan research arm of Congress did not name but unambiguously described several individual cases involving Fed directors that created the appearance of a conflict of interest, including:

• Stephen Friedman In 2008, the New York Fed approved an application from Goldman Sachs to become a bank holding company giving it access to cheap Fed loans. During the same period, Friedman, chairman of the New York Fed, sat on the Goldman Sachs board of directors and owned Goldman stock, something the Fed's rules prohibited. He received a waiver in late 2008 that was not made public. After Friedman received the waiver, he continued to purchase stock in Goldman from November 2008 through January of 2009 unbeknownst to the Fed, according to the GAO.

• Jeffrey Immelt The Federal Reserve Bank of New York consulted with General Electric on the creation of the Commercial Paper Funding Facility. The Fed later provided $16 billion in financing for GE under the emergency lending program while Immelt, GE's CEO, served as a director on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

• Jamie Dimon The CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the same time that his bank received emergency loans from the Fed and was used by the Fed as a clearing bank for the Fed's emergency lending programs. In 2008, the Fed provided JP Morgan Chase with $29 billion in financing to acquire Bear Stearns.At the time, Dimon persuaded the Fed to provide JP Morgan Chase with an 18-month exemption from risk-based leverage and capital requirements. He also convinced the Fed to take risky mortgage-related assets off of Bear Stearns balance sheet before JP Morgan Chase acquired this troubled investment bank.

Jamie Dimon, Jamie Dimon, Jamie Dimon... I know I just saw something about that guy come across the transom. Oh, yeah... the OccupyTheBoardroom folks sent me some info on him. Yes! That's what it was-- as CEO of JPMorganChase he scarfed up $17.5 million in compensation for 2009, after that bank of his took $100.7 billion in a taxpayer bailout. That doesn't seem fair. But that's what our political elites forced down our throats. And can you believe, it wasn't just Boehner and Cantor and Ryan who forced that through... most of those creepy Republican debating for president were pushing it too-- certainly Perry and the pizza guy. Wow and a Chase bank teller gets $10.77/hour-- like $22,391/year-- and on top of that nice salary Dimon also gets around $6 million in Chase dividends per annum. Can't say they don't share it around with the politicians who permit all their bad behavior though. In the 2008 and 2010 cycles they JPMorganChase doled out $9.7 million in legalistic bribes to federal officeholders and spent another $15.7 million on lobbying between 2009 and 1010. and Bernie and Ron Paul may not agree on a lot of stuff but I bet they agree that JPMorganChase has got to be broken up into pieces... just like OccupyWallStreet says.