One does not have to look far to see the deception that is green jobs through solar power. In the news as of late we have all seen the boondoggle that was Solyndra. To refresh your memory our illustrious President visited this solar cell manufacturer last year and donated $500 million (bailout / stimulus) of your tax dollars to their cause.  Last week Solyndra and your money disappeared as the company filed for bankruptcy.  In that case as in the case of the Deely plant closure, the common denominator is the loss of jobs rather than the creation of jobs.  This seems to be a theme in the new “Green Economy.”  Rather than being the birthplace of employment and prosperity, it has proven instead to be the cemetery where we bury jobs and the crematorium where we burn money.  The over $500 million given to Solyndra didn’t create jobs; it lost over 1,000 jobs and the closing of the Deely power plant in San Antonio will result in the loss of over 500 jobs.  Adding to the complexity of this closure is the loss of generating capacity.  This will put a strain on the existing power grid already struggling to keep up with demand.  Organizations like the Sierra Club and their partners will not stop with the Deely power plant; more closures are on the horizon.  This plant closing is yet another example of how the EPA is wielding its regulatory authority like an impulsive child swinging a samurai sword – your only hope is to NOT be in the way.  However, not being in the way has become almost impossible since the regulation being used in this case (The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule) has become the EPA’s weapon of choice against power providers.

I have written extensively on the stated goal of the liberal left and their pursuit of a green economy through green jobs.  In my book I dedicated a chapter to this myth and the conclusion that I came to is that they simply never pan out.  If you don’t believe me just look at Spain and the consequences they are facing right now due to this unrealistic mythical pipedream.  Spain is on the verge of default and is a big part of the current European debt crisis. Look at Solyndra and what your tax dollars were able to accomplish there – nothing. The loss of 500 jobs when the Deely power plant closes is real, the promised creation of 1,000 jobs through solar power in the future doesn’t pay those laid off worker’s bills or help an already overburdened power grid.  Green jobs and a new green economy are merely government tools used to redistribute wealth and that is a fact.  What we need are solutions not bedtime fairytales.

If the Federal Government really wanted to solve our energy crisis they would drastically curtail the EPA regulatory process and work with energy companies to continue to develop our natural resources.  They would help to retrofit and update plants through things like tax credits or deferred taxes. Or simply lower the tax burden across the board.  They would get out of the way and unleash the innovative entrepreneurial spirit that has made this country the envy of the free world.  Ladies and gentlemen, there are solutions and they can be found under the ground and in the minds of our people.  Clean coal is a reality; rather than banning it we should be working to unlock its full potential.  We have enough natural gas beneath our feet to power us well into the future and enough petroleum to do the same.  Rather than stifling their use we should be working to advance their uses.  We need to cut the noose that is binding our industrial and entrepreneurial complex and let them bring these resources into the 21^st century rather than forcing them to operate as though it were the dark ages and then proclaiming them archaic.  That is backward thinking and if you want to move forward you can’t spend your time looking backwards.

None of this is possible unless we finally put to rest the myth that is “Green.”  Green isn’t going to ride in on a white horse and save the day.  Green pursuits should be an augmenting tool in our energy toolbox not the only tool. Those who tell you that alternative sources like wind and solar are the answer to obtain energy independence are lying and speak from their ideology, not from reality. The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.  The use of Coal, Natural Gas and Oil are a reality, and the truth is that responsibly blending these into the energy mix is the future.  Until we get real when it comes to energy and energy independence we will not solve anything and we will continue to lose jobs and weaken America.  The Deely power plant closing in San Antonio is just the beginning of the Obama administration’s march to outlaw energy production as we know it, and to increase the cost of energy as we know it.  All of this is being done in the name of creating a new America with a green economy.  I say that I like the America my parents and their parents built and I say Texas cannot become the realization of a scheme that will destroy our America.  This is the time; Texas is the place – stand with me and let’s get to work defunding the EPA.  Help me dismantle the plan that would see our natural resources demonized for a flawed ideology.

Reality however is taking a toll as the company has begun preparing to meet the unrealistic demands of the Cross-State Pollution Rule.  Some of the steps that will affect the company and it employees as well as Texas consumers will be the idling of two generating units, as well as cessation of lignite mining in three of its mines.  Luminant was forced down this path despite efforts to work with the EPA.  It is clear that the Obama Administration is using the heavy regulatory hand of the EPA to strike at the heart of energy production in this state, with the design of bringing about what they believe will be a new energy renaissance revolving around “Green Energy.”  The Administration have pinned their hopes on renewable energies like wind and solar to obtain energy independence. Those who tell you that alternative sources like wind and solar are the answer to obtaining energy independence are lying, and they speak from their ideology and not from reality.

We all remember the 2008 presidential campaign when candidate Obama was caught on tape stating that under his administration energy costs would necessarily skyrocket.  Well, this is one campaign promise this President seems bent on keeping.  The assault on American energy and on jobs began the day this President was sworn into office.  He then granted the EPA “god-like” authority to begin unwinding America’s natural energy resources and right here in Texas the first of many shots has been fired.  Companies like Luminant are taking the bullets.  This country cannot afford the boondoggle that is the march towards the fantasy called a “Green Economy” through “Green Jobs.”   Texas stands at the vanguard of this fight for energy independence.  Clearly it is time to take a stand, make it a Texas stand, and fight for our right to prosper through risk, hard work and the utilization of our God-given natural resources.  Edmund Burke is credited with saying, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”  I want to alter that a bit and say this, “All that is necessary for the EPA to triumph is that we do nothing.”  So let’s do something.

As you sit and read this the Obama administration is struggling to come up with a plan that would solve America’s energy crisis and put people back to work.  This country has 9.1% of its people unemployed, that is the official number, the real number is closer to 16% and that doesn’t include the number of people who are under-employed or have just given up all together.  So what is the answer?  The administration seems to believe that if we would just all get on board of the “HOPE” express and embrace “Green Energy” and “Green Jobs” we can float out of this nightmare.  Rather than continuing to reach into that pit of hope the President has pushed us all towards, let me spin you a tale of reality.

Right here in Texas, Dimmit County to be exact, we are experiencing a bit of a renaissance when it comes solving the two biggest problems we have in this country; jobs and developing an American solution to our energy needs. According to the Executive Director of the Dimmit Country Chamber of Commerce Paula Sydel, “We’re growing so fast that we haven’t had the time to go visit and meet all the new businesses opening in town.”  So why is the Chamber of Commerce so pleased?  Because in the real world of solving problems Dimmit County is home to the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas play.  A boom has hit Dimmit Country and surrounding locations, rich in energy resources buried right here underneath our feet 50 oil and gas companies have opened offices and operational locations to service this shale play.  With those companies and the jobs they bring come increases in other businesses and demand for other jobs.  Restaurants, grocers, hotels (occupancy rates have skyrocketed) and housing needs have increased.  Over the last year more than 20 RV and Mobil home parks have opened to accommodate the influx.  These are real jobs and real development that tackle two of America’s greatest concerns, employing those who want to work and pursuing real solutions to our energy needs while creating a real strategy for America’s energy independence.

The evidence sits right here, while the population of Dimmit Country and the surrounding locals have grown the employment opportunities have also grown.  In a country where increasingly more and more people are looking for work and want to contribute we have an industry that is mercilessly attacked by an administration with a different agenda, a “Green Agenda.”  Texas does not standalone when it comes to having answers to our unemployment crisis and energy problems.  We aren’t alone when it comes to the frustrations of battling an administration bent on throwing up roadblocks rather than lending a hand.  The Gulf Coast states, the Eastern Seaboard, Alaska and states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Dakotas and many more hold the keys to America’s energy independence as well as the jobs they would create.  Coal, natural gas and oil and the promise of innovative and clean ways to extract those resources and utilize them can and should provide solutions to putting America back on the path of prosperity.  This is why I am so passionate about the responsible utilization of the energy resources we have sitting right here in the great State of Texas.

Across Texas counties like Dimmit, LaSalle, Zavala are all realizing a meaningful expansion of economic development and growth due to the current oil and gas boom.  This country is hurting and there is nobody in either party who will disagree with the fact that the number one issue is jobs.  Texas is proving that it has a solution and it comes in the form of jobs created in the energy sector.  These are jobs that deal with exploration, extraction and infrastructure.  These are new pipelines construction, trucking and rail jobs.  It creates opportunities that span the earning scale from workers to executives and everything in between both within the industry as well as within the community.

Hope isn’t a strategy.  Hope never shook your hand and gave you a job, hope never paid your bills or tucked your kids into bed at night.  Innovation, hard work and utilizing our resources in a responsible way is what will return us to the road of prosperity and that is how we will create a truly energy independent country.  We can no longer dabble with the mysticism that is the Obama vision of a “Green Economy.”  That vision has overfunded hope with your tax dollars while at the same time stifled growth and real jobs.

Is it really addressing the issues that led to the 2008 financial bust? Whatever happened to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which was supposed to fix all these kinds of problems?  Is giving more government control over American companies suppose to help the economy recover?

This will be a bust if it is passed in the Senate because it does not address the biggest issue: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Gee I cannot imagine why this is…oh I know why, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are bed  buddies with both of these organizations and they both happen to be on the House/Senate Banking Committees.  A little convenient don’t ya think?

That is not including the fact that both of these Senators were present when the House and Senate passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to “oversee the auditors of public companies in order to protect investors and the public interest by promoting informative, fair, and independent audit reports.” (http://pcaobus.org/About/Pages/default.aspx). Plus, for the first time in U.S. history, U.S. public companies were subject to external and independent oversight.  This Act created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (P.C.A.O.B) that is a nonprofit corporation that are made up of five board members, including the Chairman; whom are appointed to staggered five-year terms by the Securities and Exchange Commission, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Secretary of the Treasury. Cannot forget, the Security Exchange Commission has oversight authority of the P.C.A.O.B.  Why has there not been an investigation of the SEC, Federal Reserve System and the Secretary of Treasury?

hy hasn’t Congress repealed the 1992 Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety Soundness Act, which “encouraged” requiring government sponsored credit agencies (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) to purchase more mortgages that banks issue to minority neighborhoods?  If that would be repealed or amended, it would help solve the problems that led up to the financial bust starting in 2008.

This is another power grab by the White House and Congress with this financial reform going to vote, it is giving the federal government the “opportunity” to liquidate companies that are “failing”.  Not including the fact it creates another federal government agency-what the heck?  Oh yes, your taxpayer money will now pay even more idiots to shuffle papers, watch porn,  and play golf at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau!  You are not just paying for a new agency but you will continue to pay Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the losses they sustain until at least 2012, which lifted a cap that was set at $400B.  Already, you the taxpayer have given Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $145B!!

There cannot be any Boom!  to this financial reform, when you the taxpayer are going to be shelling out more money for fees for loans, checks, and anything else the banks can think of to offset the fee assessed by the federal government for the $19B (over 10 years) it will cost to put this bill in place (on banks with $50B in assets and hedge funds more than $10B). (http://www.newsmax.com/Headlines/US-Financial-Overhaul/2010/06/25/id/363095).

This legislation will only hurt the middle class Americans who are already hurting from unemployment, with no relief in sight.  On top of this, banks are audited quite regularly, why didn’t the auditors start raising questions?

I smell a rat in this whole mix and it is the SEC, the Federal Reserve, Secretary of Treasury, bank auditors and of course the Obama  administration. There needs to be an enforcement of the rules and regulations that are already been passed and approved; why hasn’t anybody suggested that?

Your answer:  This is a way for the federal government to get their hands on even more American businesses and run them for their benefit only or should I say for George Soros’s benefit.  Welcome Comrades’ to the Republic of the United States!

There was a myriad of bad news figures in the story. It said the Treasury is writing off the 1.6 billion as a lost cause but it alerted the reader that it won’t stop there. The story continued, “Taxpayer losses from bailing out Chrysler and GM are expected to rise as high as 34 billion, congressional auditors said.” The reasons why were never made exactly clear.

I remember the positive spin on the stories about GM paying off their loans ahead of time just a few weeks ago. At the time I thought, does this might mean I was wrong about my criticism of the bailouts? Well, no I wasn’t. What actually happened was GM paid back 4.7 billion dollars to wipe the “loan” slate clean. To explain further, GM received 52 billion dollars in TARP money, but only 6.7 billion of it was considered “the loan part.” The rest of it, the 45.3 billion dollars that isn’t “the loan part” one can only assume is taxpayer tip money for doing such a great job running the American car industry into bankruptcy. That part they never have to pay back.

Just to pour salt into the wound, in hearings Senator Grassley observed that GM actually paid back “the loan part” by dipping into their other TARP funds they received. There was no great turn around, and it was certainly not the “huge accomplishment” Biden touted it to be. It’s just a rigged set of books courtesy of a pandering Congress. We’ll give you 52 billion if you promise to pay 6.7 of it back, and you can pay that out of the check we give you. Apparently the government knows the old instant rebate trick as well as the car companies do.

Since GM alone is forever short 45.3 billion and Chrysler will add to that number, it’s unclear how the projected loss can be a smaller number of 34 billion, but when dealing in government speak, there is rarely logic or mathematical sense involved. Just like Ms. Pelosi told us about the awaited numbers in the healthcare bill, they’ll let us know later what the numbers really are, but for now just go sit down and shut up (We’re the government and we can do this.).

So how are they doing? GM turned a first quarter profit of 865 million, and Chrysler lost another 197 million. Does it matter? Fannie and Freddie are still losing. We’re not getting the money back regardless of outcomes. The car companies will just join the other industries at the private slush fund party celebrating. The Fannies and Freddies and Goldman Sachs and AIGs have learned it really doesn’t matter if you win or lose. It really is how you play the game.

The inside players and the governmental partners rake in personal fortunes in side deals, and management fees for bureaucratic oversight, and administrative fees for bank disbursement handling, and on and on. Plus they still get the their ridiculously high salaries and benefits. It‘s a guaranteed win-win, even if the corporate interests never recover.

As they say, when you get invited to a gamer of Poker, take a look around the table for an obvious sucker. If you don’t see one, you’re it. Or to make it easier, just look at the name tags. All will say “player” except the one that says “taxpayer”.  Same thing.

I suppose while Katie Couric sadly laments the anger of the Tea Party, we’ll just have to grin and bear it until the total collapse of the nation, ala Greece style.

The question then will be, who bails us out?

We learned the penalty was too severe to return to the tree of forbidden fruit again. We were never offered a settlement or given an opportunity to “not admit or deny wrongdoing.”

As obvious as the lessons of right and wrong are to children, they seem to be oblivious to our higher educated adult counterparts, especially if they are in Congress, the SEC, or on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs is a prime example.

The May 6th edition of USA Today reported that Goldman Sachs had settled all allegations with the NYSE involving short sales, for $450,000. For their part the terms stipulated that Goldman would not “admit or deny wrongdoing.”

I thought this all had an all too familiar ring, and after some checking I found that it did.

This same Goldman is back in the news lamenting a new set of charges levied against them by the SEC that could cost them more than a billion in settlement dollars, to “not admit or deny wrongdoing.” One article said “Goldman remains furious about being blindsided by the lawsuits filed by the SEC as the regulators did not give the firm a chance to settle.” If this seems audacious, it is, and it fits a pattern of familiarities between Washington, the SEC, and brokerage houses.

This same Goldman Sachs, the one that had just settled for the $450,000.00, was the same Goldman Sachs that had settled a subprime inquiry with the State of Massachusetts in 2009 for 60 million dollars, a settlement that “stopped all further action.”

This same Goldman Sachs was part of a ten brokerage house SEC 2003 complaint that settled fraud allegations for 850 million dollars that they “neither admitted nor denied .” For the record, eight of the ten brokerage houses that dodged criminal accountability in that same settlement went on to receive TARP funds in 2009.

This is also the same Goldman Sachs that contributed 5.9 million dollars in campaign donations to both parties in the 2007-2008 election cycle, including $994,795.00 that went to the Obama campaign. The spread of the donations among influential members would have us believe Goldman is interested in supporting the political interests of both parties.

This same Goldman Sachs has a permanent 12 person lobbying staff. This same Goldman Sachs had its CEO Hank Paulson named Treasury Secretary under the Bush administration. And this same Goldman Sachs had it’s top lobbyist, Mark Patterson, selected to serve as Timothy Geithner’s Chief of Staff.

And, oh yes, it is the same Goldman Sachs that received 10 billion dollars in TARP funds.

If you feel like the DC politicians and Wall Street are at a private party and you weren’t invited, you’re correct. Politicians see nothing wrong, whether it’s Barney Frank defending Fannie and Freddie, Chris Dodd defending Countrywide Mortgage, or both Democrats and Republicans defending the 5.3 million dollars donated in campaign funds by Wall street in this election year alone. It’s an obvious partnership rather than an oversight relationship.

The business of settling matters of fraudulent practices by “neither admitting or denying guilt” is ridiculous. DC postures by day but dines with Wall street by candlelight. The millions of dollars changing hands and inside job swapping is hardly going to change Wall Street’s fraudulent practices. Brokers now know the worst case scenario of getting caught in the cherry tree is that their benefactors will bail them out.

We don’t need new laws and agencies. We need a few honest men in office to stop the pandering, and insist frauds “admit they broke the laws” when they break them. When the watch dogs are fed steak by the people they’re supposed to be watching, and they do it in plain sight, it’s probably time to clean house.

Another giant bailout is in play, this time for a country “too big too fail.” It isn’t a matter of proactively attempting to save Greece. It’s more that the member nations are trying to defensively avoid being sucked down the same drain. The nervousness of the world’s money markets, including Wall Street, reflects that no one is yet completely confident that the proposed bailout fix will work. The problem? Runaway debt that Greece can’t cover.

There are very valuable lessons to be learned here. Unfortunately America seems to be learning none of them. We’re hindered with Harvard elitists leading us.

The root of the problem is socialism. In our country we can substitute the word liberalism, as they both seek the same outcome, a ruling class. Though it is a political system, financially speaking socialism is a process of governing that invariably bankrupts itself. It can produce no other long term outcome because socialism destroys motivation by its very design.

Socialism is marketed by a political party, in our case liberal democrats, like a product. It’s a government benefits sale package. It gains political favor and power by promising “have nots” a bigger share of the “haves” pie, by making free market profiteers give up more of their surpluses. This appeals to a widespread underclass seeking shortcuts to security, but the practical effect of this system is that it breaks down free markets.

When someone produces something, whether it’s money or marbles, and the state seizes the increase, inevitably that person stops producing. That’s human nature. People that produce move on to another place where the rewards of their labors are not seized by the state. Hypothesizing and postulating doesn’t change that truth. That’s just the way it is and ever shall be, amen.

Under socialism ( or liberalism ) productivity declines. Simultaneously the people receiving entitlements become less motivated to produce in an atmosphere where benefits are given to them. They don’t usually rise to build new enterprises. Usually they demand more benefits. The math is simple; when you promise to pay out more than you take in it leaves a mess. Then liberal elites create more government to rule over the mess their faulty design caused, but then that was the goal to begin with;  to rule.

Socialists are promise givers rather than promise keepers. In modern times they pass laws that obligate the state to massive spending for entitlement and benefit programs. This spending forces borrowing to pay for the excesses. Since production decreases the doomsday is inevitable. In a nut shell that’s what ruined Greece financially, and that’s also the course of America right now. It is textbook liberalism. But notice the liberals remain in power.

In America under the banner of progressive change, this same liberal doctrine is promising the same shortcuts by the same methods, seizing control and profits away from the free market. We are running up unsustainable debt, enacting massive government benefit programs and establishing government bureaucracies to run them. The promises are utopian, but the long term outcome cannot be a different one than what socialism always produces. Ruination.

The end is predictable. So why do these elites do it? Because they love to rule. They believe it’s their destiny. More than that, while it’s not an equal opportunity business, liberal elitism pays handsomely. Check it out. They get elected, control the lives of others, and become super rich. Try to find a poor liberal in the Senate or the White House.

In the end it’s all about the money. Liberal elitists believe what’s yours is theirs. And that’s not any better for you than it is for America.

The actual bets, or “investments” in wall street parlance, contain formulas that no one quite understands. Not the buyers, not the politicians, and apparently not the SEC. What is understood is that if the funds goes bust and the investors take a soaking, the money managers walk away with full pockets. And so do their friends.

And they have a new insurance plan called TARP so they can’t lose.

Outside the publics view, Wall Street money flows into campaign coffers, and into market managers bank accounts. When the inside wheeler dealers dramatically over reached in 2008, TARP was quickly passed like a gift for the bridal envelope. The buying public got a peek into how manipulated and politicized the mess really was, and as the bag holders, they got hopping mad about it. Government said the concerns were “too big to fail”. More likely the ugliness was too big to be exposed. As a few Bernie Madoffs’ surfaced like seltzer bubbles a select few finally had to go to jail, but beyond political posturing the system remained largely intact.

TARP rescued the market manipulators.

Though traditionally Republicans have romanced Wall Street, a new President and a new congress is sensing the opportunity to change the status quo. The pot is huge and not so coincidentally the democrats have picked this moment in history to be concerned about Wall Street corruption. This concern however doesn’t include exposing the players, many of whom now sit in government jobs, uncovering past cover ups, or truly defining what banks and brokerage houses should and should not do. In other words the focus is not on cleaning up the town but on controlling the money that flows through it.

Do we need “derivative” legislation? We do need something but not new bureaucracies with untold funding needs and new phone book sized rules to monitor. There is absolutely no justification for a penny of new deficit spending. We have more than enough people, departments, and agencies in position now. We just need them to do there job.

We need common sense application of the laws we already have and real oversight of the bureaucracies that now exist. Virtually everybody knows the process and the purpose of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is behind the failure that snowballed into a crisis. Let‘s review that before we write new laws. Review them and if appropriate, close them.

There are things we can do right now. Banks should not be brokerage houses for reasons that are too obvious to explain, even though congress can’t quite grasp it. Brokerage houses should not be able to bet against the investments they market as good prospects, as Goldman Sachs appeared to do, by simultaneously selling the same investment short in their private portfolio. We don’t need to create new agencies to do this. We need people in the agencies that now exist with the grit to say loudly, this is wrong as it happens, regardless of how large a campaign contribution is in the wings.

To this day, even after almost a trillion in bailout funds have changed hands, no one knows the specifics of the investments labeled “toxic. No one knows what they are, or even where they are. We cannot account for how the bail out money was used. When you cannot account for what you are selling you shouldn’t be selling it. This is what needs to be changed. We can skip designing new offices and personnel courtesy of the American taxpayer.

Until there is anything resembling full disclosure of what really happened during the credit and financial market collapse and a commitment to disband the social and fiscally destructive mechanisms of Fannies and Freddies, new created agencies with new budgets are just new excesses of the future, with the old ones still in place.

Initially I was floored when Doug Shouman came out and actually linked the growing number of Americana’s receiving tax refunds with that of Obama’s economic relief program. How naive are those who support Obama anyway?  Come on, those greater number of returns are likely from the millions of Americans now unemployed due to Obama’s experimental economic policies.

The growing number of Americans gaining tax refunds and the increased refund amounts are directly linked to the millions who are now unemployed or who have lost wages.

These Americans who once received great salaries  are likely now making less then $10,000 a year; therefore, they  take advantage of the earned income credit and the other low income credits.

Another sad point is that many who file taxes are only showing unemployment income, in which, they will likely still get a refund.  Certainly I am not trying to say this is wrong for those who are suffering economically, but instead I am trying to highlight the shameful effort of the Obama Administration to take credit where none exists.

Is this truly a good thing that we, as a nation, have more people receiving tax refunds or would it be better that people are paying more taxes because they are earning more? Well, America the Obama Administration seems to think your all doing just fine.  Wow, we are so blessed:  has our glorious leader not once again provided for us: how merciful is he.

Now moving on to comrade Geihner and his wonderful praise of his boss Mr. Obama and the “Forceful persuasive powers” of Vice President Biden.  Did he actually say anything worthwhile?  I mean it was all about praise and how people who are suffering with no jobs can take advantage of government hand outs.  NOTHING was about hope!

Where are the jobs that make men independent and free?  Is this Obama’s CHANGE?

On and On these trio continued:  I felt that I was being introduced to the glorious comrade Stalin who graciously provides for the masses who dare not complain about their daily ration of one potato.

All in all, the whole presentation was just nothing but a political fire hose washing away the truth and misery that has become the hall mark of Obama’s economic policy.  There is little growth, few, if any, new jobs and, as a matter of fact, America is suffering under the Obama Administration: fine and pretty words don’t feed families.

I tell you, even a blind Democrat has his limits before reality sinks in.

Today with the help of 12 Regional Federal Reserve Banks, the Federal Reserve has the following duties:

• Maintain stable prices (control inflation)
• Ensure maximum employment and production output
• A financial institution regulator: establishes the rules of conduct, supervision & enforcement of the regulations.  Plus, monitors banks seeking to merge with other banks
• A bank’s bank: member banks can borrow money (short term funds) at a discounted rate
• The government bank: maintains the checking account of the U.S. Treasury.  Quite a number of transactions are done for the government, including tax deposits, securities such as savings bonds, treasury bills, notes, and bonds that are bought by and for the U.S. government-Issuance and redemption of U.S. savings bonds
• Coin and paper currency produced by the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing is distributed by the Federal Reserve
• Monitors the condition of currency and either sends it back into circulation or has it destroyed
• Help “encourage” loans to low-moderate income neighborhoods instituted by the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and the 1992 Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety Soundness Act which “encouraged” requiring government sponsored credit agencies (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) to purchase more mortgages that banks issue to minority neighborhoods-Enforcement of consumer credit protection laws
• Provision of an efficient payment system-for example: check collections and electronic transactions
• Determination of margin requirements-the amount of credit granted investors for the purchase of securities, such as shares of stock
• Approval and supervision of the Edge Act and “agreement corporations”-involve corporations that are chartered to engage in international banking. The Fed is responsible for approving and regulating foreign branches of member banks and for the developing policies regarding foreign lending by member banks

It gets even better!  The Fed is not part of the federal government it is unto itself, independent-great right?  Not so fast!  Do you know that there are no outside “checks and balances” for the Federal Reserve?   It is said that each of the Federal Reserves tools are under the authority of a different group within the system-in short, each group is suppose to keep the other group in check.  How is that working so far America?  Not very well, right?

The Federal Reserve helped collapse the real estate market in this country, along with many banks. Why has Congress ignored this?  Could it be because of Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, and Chris Dodd (to name a few)? In 97 years, the Federal Reserve has never, ever been audited! Why is this?  Could it be that there is a fear of what might be uncovered?  Some believe that the Federal Reserve is owned largely by foreign banks-could this be true?  Some say, the Federal Reserve is trying to collapse the United States from within for a country like China-could this be true? Others say, that the Federal Reserve is being used to help change the United States into a Socialist/Communist country-is this true?

I do not know exactly the answer to all the questions, but I do know the Federal Reserve has too much power that has gone unchecked way too long (97 years!) and it is time for America to demand that the Federal Reserve be audited by two different reputable accounting firms with no ties to the government or any congressman/woman.  This can be demanded by the people of this country and the Congress can do it right away-Congress has the ultimate power to audit and if needed amend the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 anytime.

References

Community reinvestment act. (2008, July 10). Retrieved on March 23, 2010 from http://www.federalreserve.gov/dcca/cra

Federal reserve districts and banks.  (2005, December 13). Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.federalreserve.gov/otherfrb.htm

Federal reserve. (n.d.).  Retrieved on March 18, 2010 from http://money.howstuffworks.com/fed.htm

Federal reserve system. (2008). The columbia ed. encyclopedia. Retrieved on March 23, 2010 from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Federal_Reserve_System.aspx

Federal open market committee.  (2010, January 27). Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomc.htm

Federal reserve system. (n.d.).  Retrieved on March 19, 2010, from http://www.answers.com/topic/fed-federal-reserve-system

Function of the fed. (n.d.).  Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/fed101/structure/functions/functions/htm

History of the federal reserve. (n.d.).   Retrieved on March 15, 2010, from http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/fre_director/print.cfm?

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