Let's End the Fed

It still amazes me how intellectually corrupt that paragon of financial wisdom, the Fed, truly is. How anyone can maintain that we need a Fed because somehow a few men behind closed doors can successfully machinate the economy is beyond me. Or hold that such politically appointed men can remain politically independent. A few excerpts from today's NY Times story:

Voters had become suspicious and unnerved by the Fed because of its trillion-dollar efforts to bail out the financial system, Mr. Frank warned. If the Fed really wanted to survive the disgruntlement in both parties, he continued, Mr. Bernanke would have to step back and let him devise a compromise.

[...]

"Ben Bernanke turns out to have better political instincts than anybody thought," Mr. Frank said in an interview last week. "They accept the fact that I know what I'm doing up here."

[...]

At one recent meeting, Senator Sherrod Brown challenged Mr. Bernanke's bona fides as a regular guy by giving him a pop quiz on baseball statistics. Mr. Bernanke, a passionate fan, passed.

[...]

To fight illustrates Mr. Bernanke's political challenge better than the one over Mr. Paul's bill to audit the Fed.

The maneuvering is still under way, involving intricate negotiations outside of public view. But, aided by the pledge of help from Mr. Frank and backing from the administration, Fed officials cautiously predict they will get what they want.