NERVOUS THAT ITS BACKROOM money dealings may soon come under public scrutiny, the Federal Reserve is reportedly bringing in the big guns in an effort to quash Rep. Ron Paul’s landmark “Audit the Fed” bill (H.R. 1207), which has garnered 208 cosponsors as this issue goes to press—nearly half the members of the House of Representatives.
A national news wire service reported in early June that Linda Robertson, who currently heads up public relations for Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has been brought in by the United States’ private central bank to polish its image.
Previously, Ms. Robertson served in top spots in both Republican and Democrat Treasury Departments. She also had a brief stint at the infamous energy company Enron, the Houston-based corporation that through fraud and deception, managed to fleece investors of billions of dollars.
Most notably, Ms. Robertson worked in the Treasury Department while Robert Rubin was secretary during the time in which the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was rolled back. Rubin’s Treasury worked with Congress to formulate legislation, which allowed banks to form massive financial institutions by merging with investment firms and insurance companies.
These same megabanks, which formed as a result of the new rules, have now cost U.S. taxpayers trillions of dollars in bailout money.
“Members of Congress have chafed at the Fed’s bold use of its emergency powers and in particular its multi-billion-dollar bailouts of investment bank Bear Stearns and insurer American International Group,” Reuters reported in an article that broke the news about the Federal Reserve’s new hire.
“Critics also bristle at the Fed’s practice of maintaining the confidentiality of the companies that borrow directly from the central bank on the grounds that divulging their names would risk runs on those institutions.”
As a result, says Reuters, the Fed will be bringing on Ms. Robertson to act as its point man when it comes to dealing with Congress.
In May, the federal government’s Inspector General for the Federal Reserve Elizabeth Coleman testified before Congress that she does “not have jurisdiction to directly go out and audit Reserve Bank activities specifically.”
Rep. Paul has already stated that the intention of his bill is to open “all Fed operations to a GAO audit and calling for such an audit to be completed by the end of 2010, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act would achieve much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve.”
Federal Reserve Hires PR Firm to Fight Audit
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