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Ben Bernanke: “(Give) the President some ability to declare emergencies or take extraordinary actions and not put that all on the Fed”
TND Editor’s Note: Existing executive orders do indeed empower the President to take extraordinary actions well beyond even what former Fed. Chair Bernake is thinking about. However, the Constitutionality of these executive orders are debatable, and the only reason why we here public debate about said E.O. powers rests precisely on the fact that the consent of the governed and Constitutionality are questionable – in other words, the powers that be are cautious about the use of said powers and continue to talk about them to secure “buy in” even though they already claim the ability to use these powers under executive orders. — Eric Dubin
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TND Guest Contributor: Paul-Martin Foss |
Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. On Monday, along with a number of other former Fed officials, he participated in an event at Brookings on the topic of Federal Reserve independence, governance, and accountability. One of his quotes in particular was highly shocking.
Bernanke was quoted as saying that the President of the United States should be able to declare economic emergencies and take extraordinary action to combat those emergencies, along parallel lines to the military powers he already has. He stated that it might make sense to give “the President some ability to declare emergencies or take extraordinary actions and not put that all on the Fed.”
The President already has vast emergency powers from a variety of enacted laws, and the United States has been in a perpetual state of emergency for decades. And now Bernanke wants to add to that and give the President even more power?
The ironic part of Bernanke’s statement is that he was dead-set against auditing the Federal Reserve when the issue first came up in 2009, arguing just like many other Fed officials that Audit the Fed would politicize monetary policy. The Fed, according to Bernanke, Yellen, and numerous others, should be free from the meddling of Congress and the President. It should be independent and able to engage in monetary policy without interference. Yet now here is Bernanke arguing that the Presidency, the most politicized of all the political offices in Washington, should be granted extraordinary new powers to combat economic crises.
These new powers of course would very likely include some of the power already exercised by the Federal Reserve, and would almost certainly include granting the President additional flexibility to hire, fire, and order around federal officials, including Federal Reserve Board members. It would be highly surprising if those powers didn’t include dictating monetary policy to the Federal Reserve System too, as giving war-like economic powers to the President would require the maximum ability to influence the economy and would be nonsensical if the Fed were to be able to act as a bulwark against the President in such a situation.
Bernanke has to realize the implications of that suggestion he made, which is why his opposition to Audit the Fed on the grounds that it would politicize monetary policy never held much water. Federal Reserve officials oppose Audit the Fed because they want to centralize power within the Fed and the Executive Branch and remain free from Congressional oversight. Any arguments about politicization are purely for public consumption. We always sensed that, but thanks to Bernanke’s comments yesterday we now have a concrete example of just how superficial that opposition to Audit the Fed really is.
Video source: Brookings Institution YouTube Channel
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About Paul-Martin Foss:
Paul-Martin Foss is the founder, President, and Executive Director of the Carl Menger Center for the Study of Money and Banking, an Arlington, VA-based think tank dedicated to educating the American people on the importance of sound money and sound banking.
Prior to founding the Menger Center, Mr. Foss worked in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven years, including six years as Congressman Ron Paul’s legislative assistant for monetary policy and financial services, and one year as Deputy Legislative Director for Congressman Thomas Massie.
As Congressman Paul’s legislative assistant, he assisted the Congressman in his duties as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy by helping to develop hearing topics, agendas, and briefing Congressmen and their staffs on monetary policy topics. Mr. Foss also was responsible for the management of Dr. Paul’s monetary policy and financial services legislation, including the “Audit the Fed” and “End the Fed” bills, and was co-editor of Ron Paul’s Monetary Policy Anthology, a multi-thousand page compilation of hearing transcripts, lecture transcripts, and other documents related to Dr. Paul’s chairmanship.
Mr. Foss received his Bachelor’s degree from The University of the South (Sewanee), and Master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
This article appeared on the Carl Menger Center for the Study of Money and Banking and is reprinted with permission, “Creative Commons 4.0.”
Source: http://thenewsdoctors.com/ben-bernanke-give-the-president-some-ability-to-declare-emergencies-or-take-extraordinary-actions-and-not-put-that-all-on-the-fed/
