Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed a measure (a modified amendment by socialist Bernie Sanders) requiring a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve, in particular to whom it gave over $2 trillion in “emergency loans” between December 2007 and now.  They also defeated a measure by Republican David Vitter which would have allowed occasional “sweeping audits".

I realize that a lot of people on “my” side of politics are all for the “Audit the Fed” movement.  But something about it just rubs me the wrong way.

And that something is the politicization of the Fed.

Yes, it’s absolutely true that the Fed has become more political than it should…and that’s not just a recent development.  It was political under Paul Volcker and under Alan Greenspan, and it’s reached a whole new level under Ben Bernanke.

I’m not saying the recent hyper-politicization of the Fed is not understandable given the massive economic upheaval the country has experienced.

And I most certainly am not saying that taxpayers don’t have some sort of right to know where their money is being spent or lent.

But ongoing audits of the Fed will introduce a level of Congressional influence and interference which is the last thing a central bank needs and the last thing American citizens need despite “conservative populist” rhetoric to the contrary.

Remember, there are probably not more than half a dozen members of Congress truly qualified to ask questions of the Fed and understand the answers.  After Paul Ryan, I have a hard time thinking of any, actually, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Ron Paul is probably qualified, but he’s also a bit wacky…and I say that as someone who contributed to his presidential campaign (but wouldn’t vote for him because he’s so out-in-left-field on international issues.)

Members of Congress NEVER want interest rates to go up.  While it’s fairly obvious from the Fed’s reluctance to change, especially increase, rates during the months leading up to a presidential election, I repeat that the last thing we need is some House committee chairman hinting to some Fed governor that some appropriation or project for the governor’s region might not be looked upon favorably if the Fed were to raise rates.

All in all, I think it would be better to abolish the Fed than to subject it, and therefore the nation’s monetary policy, to the political whims of the self-serving narcissists in the US Senate or the wild political swings to which the American public has been prone in recent years.

So, for the first and hopefully the last time in my life, I’m pleased that Bernie Sanders beat out David Vitter.  If there is a God and if he cares about politics, may he forgive me for saying such a thing…