Show Me State

"Private, I know they brainwashed you in boot camp, but sometimes you gotta question authority."
--Casey Ryback (Under Siege)

Politicians continue to argue that the Federal Reserve needs to be an independent agency in order to be free of the political games people play. "You wouldn't want Congress to set monetary policy," they say.

This is laughable for a number of reasons.

1) If you believe that the current set up insulates the Fed from political influence then you are dreaming, hoping, or naive. Start with the low hanging fruit that the president names the Fed chairman.

2) Don't you have to ask why bureaucrats warn of intangling monetary system matters in Capitol Hill politics, but not other matters such as budgeting, health care, social safety nets, etc? Political influence is bad for one but not for the others???

3) The primary lever available to citizens when it comes to political matters is the vote. If people are dissatisfied with bureaucrats' performance, then they can 'vote the rascals out.' By creating an agency outside of the voting umbrella, we create an elite class of untouchables that becomes a self-perpetuating oligarchy, accountable to no one.

Of course, questioning why we have a central bank at all renders the above moot.