The Fed announced they will maintain near-zero interest rate levels until the end of 2014, the continuation of a policy implemented in 2008 to "spur economic growth."
In reality, the Federal Reserve is continuing more of the same that caused the financial crisis in the first place. The Fed caused the crisis by keeping interest rates artificially low for too long a period of time spurring investment in areas of the economy (like housing) that already had been overinvested in, thus inflating the bubble that nearly crippled the US economy when it burst in the December 2007.
We shouldn't be surprised by this announcement of a continued policy of more of the same.
The 2006 Fed minutes released recently show an appalling lack of foresight by all the key players who are still involved today. Tim Geithner, then head of the NY Fed was completely clueless, and Chairman Bernanke failed to see the possibility for the housing bubble creating a larger fallout throughout the economy.
We're headed into a period of long-term economic stagnation if policies that contributed to the original financial crisis are not reversed. Again, the problem here is that too many of the policy makers are the same people who caused the crisis and they feel confident their massive new regulatory law (Dodd/Frank) has fixed the problem.
It's time we Audit -- and then End -- the Fed!
H.R. 459 is at 199 cosponsors and S. 202 is at 19 cosponsors in the Senate. C4L is currently wading through hundreds of thousands of petitions we've gathered from grassroots activists across the country and will soon be dumping them on Congress, urging them to sign on as cosponsors and to call for a stand-alone vote in both houses of Congress!
But I'm afraid those petitions alone won't be enough to convince some members of the urgent need to fully audit the Fed. To really make this work, I'm going to need each of you to call, email, and fax your representatives and senators and urge them to cosponsor H.R. 459 and S. 202 immediately if they have not done so already! If they have already cosponsored the bill, I need you to urge them to do what they can to bring these bills to the floor for a stand-alone vote!
Throughout it's 99-year history, the Federal Reserve has never been transparent with it's actions. That has spurred decades of corruption and backroom deals and bailouts with no scrutiny from your elected officials. It's time for the Fed's days of working in the shadows to end and these bills will be the ones to shine the spotlight on the problems that for too long have plagued our economy.
Please, continue to work with us as we seek to Audit the Fed!
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