ABSTRACT

Throughout his career, monetary policy and the role of the Federal Reserve system (the Fed) has been his dominant concern. So focused has Congressman Paul been on the Fed and the dangers that he believes it poses to American prosperity and freedom that he has been considered by many to be something of a crank. While this reputation is not completely undeserved, his concern with the Fed has come to be much more widely held in the wake of the recent fi nancial turmoil. Congressman Paul fi led a bill, HR 1207, “the Federal Reserve Transparency Act,” calling for a complete audit of the Fed. The bill quickly gained 300 co-sponsors in the House before being folded into a broader fi nancial reform bill. Bernie Sanders, the Independent-Socialist senator from Vermont, has introduced a companion bill in the Senate. When a man of the Libertarian right joins with the only declared Socialist member of Congress to call for a closer look at a powerful Washington institution like the Fed, it is worth asking why.