Last week Elon Musk suggested DOGE could audit the Mother of Slush Funds, the Federal Reserve.
He even suggested Ron Paul could lead the team.
DOGE has already found at least $55 billion in waste and fraud. The Fed could ramp that up ten-fold.
“Less Oversight than the CIA”
Economist Murray Rothbard, in his book The Case Against the Fed, famously noted the Federal Reserve has less oversight than the CIA.
Indeed, you can find videos across the internet of Ron Paul — then-Chair of the House Subcommittee on Monetary Policy — pressing Fed Chairs for information only to get smirks from Ben Bernanke or Alan Greenspan.
Raising the question of who exactly runs the Fed.
To which the answer is the Fed runs itself. On behalf of the banks that literally own it.
Why Audit the Fed: Monetary Policy
So what would an audit of the Fed uncover? There are 2 big areas: first, how the Fed conducts monetary policy — meaning how much money to print; and second, where to put interest rates, which can spin money for Wall Street.
Today, these decisions are secret — we can only guess how much is negotiated over late-night dinners that touch on future employment prospects.
Given Wall Street banks habitually pay former Fed chairs hundreds of thousands for speeches — Janet Yellen got over $7 million — we can guess these are fruitful dinners.
Why Audit the Fed: A $7 trillion Slush Fund
The second big area is the Fed as a slush fund. The Fed currently reports $7 trillion in assets.
These were overwhelmingly bought directly from Wall Street or hedge funds, including hundreds of billions in overseas swaps where the Fed just hands dollars to foreign central banks.
We have no idea what back-room deals went on to use your dollars to bail out one bank — or hedge fund — but not another. Or one country — remember the Tequila Crisis — but not another.
In short, they practically printed up 7 trillion dollars and we have no idea where the dollars went.
In fact, without an audit we have no idea if the 7 trillion number is even accurate — maybe it’s 9, maybe it’s 12. Who knows how many counterfeit dollars they dumped into special interests to dilute the dollar’s buying power and siphon away Americans’ life savings?
Why the Fed has Never Been Audited
A main reason the Fed has never been audited is because it’s self-funding. Meaning it practically prints its own budget. Similar to the way a basement counterfeiter prints their own budget.
This means the Fed doesn’t go to Congress for budget — in fact, it traditionally handed money to Congress — called remittances, and essentially some of the proceeds of its counterfeiting.
These were substantial — around 70 billion a year until Jerome Powell managed to put the Fed a quarter trillion in the hole. But even in the good old days, they represented perhaps 10% of what the Fed prints every year — the rest we don’t know where it went.
What’s Next
The Swamp will fight a Fed audit for the same reason they fight all the audits — they own the grift.
The trick will be communicating to voters just how corrupt Wall Street and the Federal Reserve are.
A 2022 poll by IPSOS found that 93% of Americans know little to nothing about the Fed — which the Fed likes just fine.
Fortunately, the corruption DOGE is currently uncovering can make it crystal clear to this 93% why the Mother of Slush Funds needs the Mother of Audits.
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