Eideard

Must I teach Economics 101 to these twerps?
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Texas Governor Rick Perry has been on a Bernanke-bashing binge this week, demanding on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve “open their books up…”

But what books exactly does Perry want opened? The Federal Reserve already publishes its balance sheet online every Thursday for the entire world to see.

Not only that, it is audited regularly. Every year, an external accounting firm audits the financial statements of the Federal Reserve and all 12 of its regional banks. Last year, that firm was Deloitte and Touche, but PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG have also done it over the years.

Those financial statements are also posted online.

“Every aspect of the Fed’s financial dealings are wide open — wide open,” Bernanke remarked at the National Press Club in February. “There is no sense in which the Fed has secret financial dealings.”

Despite that public information, anti-Fed criticism seems to be the latest craze on the Republican campaign trail. On Tuesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann criticized the Federal Reserve for not being “subject to transparency.”

Those comments echo similar sentiments from Rep. Ron Paul, a renowned Fed critic in his own right, who over the years has repeatedly called for audits of the central bank and even a review of all the gold in Fort Knox…

“Now, what ‘audit the Fed’ means in the language that has been used by some members of Congress, is not about the financials of the Fed,” Bernanke said in February. “Rather, it’s about, quote, auditing monetary policy,” meaning Congress would evaluate the central bank’s decisions…

Congress already has some ability to examine the Fed through its own investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office…

What these fools want is exactly the opposite of what is well-reasoned law. They want the ability for Congress to set policy and procedures – day-by-day if they wish – for the central Federal Reserve Bank. Frankly, I think half the crap Congress manages is already scary enough.

Leave the appointees alone once they’ve gotten past the political crappola of Congressional confirmation to do their job. It falls within their area of expertise in the first place. Creeps like Paul or Perry or Bachmann – who can’t even get the definition of the word “audit” straight – are not the people we need establishing monetary policy.

A new U.S. database is seeking to identify the remains of thousands of dead people, some of whom have remained mysteries for decades, officials say.

The online system, called NamUs, is operated by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Officials hope to attach names to the many John and Jane Does whose remains are housed in morgues and police forensic labs across the country, reported The Washington Post.

The newspaper said the system is open for use by police, medical examiners and coroners, as well as family members.

“Instead of having this fragmented system where people go to coroners, to medical examiners, to law enforcement, we have everything in a central repository,” Kristina Rose, acting director of the National Institute of Justice, told the Post. “People can participate in identifying their loved ones…”

A 2007 federal report indicated that 4,400 sets of unidentified human remains surface each year, though most cases are eventually solved. The estimated total number of unidentified remains varies from 13,500 to 40,000, the Post reported.

There’s always someone out there, missing and presumed – dead or alive. At least this new system might allow for some of those questions to be answered.