In an interview released today by Digg and the Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was pressured about the growing popular movement to Audit the Fed spearheaded by Texas Congressman Ron Paul. A visibly uncomfortable Geithner attempts to dismiss the question by stating "I'm sure people understand that you want to keep politics out of monetary policy." When Geithner is again pressed on the issue, he makes the stunning assertion that conducting an audit of the Federal Reserve—something never before done in its 96 year history—is a "line that we don't want to cross," proclaiming that such a move would be "problematic for the country." Watch the interview in the player below:
Geithner's response that auditing the Fed would give politicians dangerous control over American monetary policy is mistaken at best and a deliberate lie at worst. Allowing the public to know what happened to their $24 trillion in bailout money does not give undue control of monetary policy to the people's elected representatives. Instead, such an audit would finally allow the public to see how their money has been spent in the midst of the largest spending binge in the history of the world's economy, hardly an unreasonable demand given the well-documented revolving door between the Treasury and Goldman Sachs, the main recipient of bailout funds. Ultimately, the Treasury Secretary is left spewing the absurdity that "I think even the sponsor of that bill recognizes how important it is to us to have the Fed independent of politics," which can only be said to be true insofar as Ron Paul—the sponsor of House Resolution (HR) 1207— wants to abolish the Federal Reserve system altogether.
That the Wall Street Journal would even pressure the Treasury Secretary on serious issues like the Audit the Fed movement may be surprising, given that the Wall Street Journal is a mouthpiece of the financial oligarchy and that editor Paul Gigot, like Geithner himself, is a Bilderberg attendee. Needless to say, this was not a typical inside-the-beltway interview. Instead, questions were submitted and voted on by the Digg community, with the top 10 questions being posed to Mr. Geithner.
As a result, the Secretary was bombarded by pointed questions about his documented tax evasion from 2001-2004, the wisdom of spending trillions of dollars in the light of long-term dollar devaluation and even, in the words of one particularly irate questioner, "Why are you running the Treasury Department?" Despite presumably having had time to prepare responses to each question well in advance, Geithner is still visibly discomfited by the entire exchange, picking at his shirt cuff and coughing nervously throughout the interview.
In one particularly telling moment, Geithner even admits "We have been forced to do just extraordinary things and, frankly, offensive things to help save the economy."
That these questions are only being asked now, almost a year into the bailout and several months after the new administration has taken office, further highlights how the controlled corporate media is doing everything in its power to keep to well-trodden and uncontroversial areas in their interviewing of key administration officials. This interview is testimony to the power of the citizen journalism movement that is attempting to hold those in power accountable for their actions. We can only hope that the Obama Administration lives up to their promise to be the "cyber" administration by allowing more such question-and-answer sessions in the future.
Posted 08/26/09 10:18 AM Robyn Hamlin Saint Louis, MO
I am so sick and tired of the current administration and their employees saying that they inherited this entire mess and not saying that their "Messiah" voted for the expenditures. Doublespeak and they all need to go.
Good healthcare reform would be mandating that the government can not change contracts or impose mandates on the population. What makes them think that they have the right to tell me what kind of coverage I can or can't buy?
Apparently Geithner thinks that the government makes money and has the right to invest in private businesses. He needs to go back to school to see where the government gets their money. They get it at the end of a gun from the people who live in the United States.
What on earth? I'd rather cross that line today instead of tomorrow.
--
You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves.
-Andrew Jackson
Posted 08/26/09 2:44 PM VictimOfFeds San Clemente, CA
"Don't want to mix politics and finance"
Then why is the Fed Chairman appointed by a politician?
Thank you for posting this. Two observations. First, I am so so pleased that 3 of the questions to the Secretary were concerning HR1207. Second, I think Geithner may just be a puppet - too underqualified for his position. Even if he is not this was an incredibly scary interview - this man is in a position of enormous power and it is now obious to me that power will never be used to further the constitution of the United States of America.
Posted 08/26/09 3:11 PM Isomies Mechanicsville, VA
aldante,
Without giving away too much information, let me tell you that I know someone who has worked with Geithner at the NYFRB. This person straight up told me that Geithner "was an idiot" and spent his time playing basketball.
I always get tired of hearing the phrase about the Fed needing to be "independent" of politics. Excuse me, but Congress is SUPPOSED to handle monetary policy. It's in the Constitution. Congress can't delegate their powers to anyone else because we the people have already delegated to them the powers they have. If they delegate anything, they are no longer representing us and that is their job to represent. Anyway, I know I am preaching to the choir. Just frustrated with the state of affairs, as usual.
Posted 08/26/09 3:56 PM Michael Salvi Elkins Park, PA
LOVE the Andrew Jackson quote, THANKS!!!
"'Don't want to mix politics and finance'...Then why is the Fed Chairman appointed by a politician?"
Great point, those are the types of questions that stop people dead in their tracks. Keep asking them.
Of course he's a puppet folks, they're all puppets, that doesn't make them stupid, these guys are anything but stupid, they know EXACTLY what they're doing.
And why is a FED chairman (Geithner) appointed to be a politician, lol.
I think there is a lot in favor of politicians independent from the Federal Reserve.
Seriously, these guys rotate between Federal Reserve, Investment banks and government bailing out all their buddies to make sure they get some pork in the next round.
It's no different than people rotating between organised maffia, police and department of justice. It just doesn't work out very well...
Come on, even Ron Paul recognizes the bad influence of groups like the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The Bilderberg group is no different from that.
Posted 08/26/09 11:00 PM fadestyle Walnut Bottom, PA
Yeah, there's a reason why the main media moguls have allowed the Fed to go relatively unnoticed for the last 100 years. You can believe this or not, but it's interesting to know that they all meet together in their upper crust societies (Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group, Trilateral etc) all of course funded by the bankers and descendants of the creators of the Fed.
He didn't answer a lot of questions, and around the 12 minute mark he stutters a lot. My favorite answer was to the tax question. He basically answered a direct explain this question with "I can understand why one would want to ask that question". Gee thanks for the explanation.
Posted 08/27/09 07:47 AM Michael Salvi Elkins Park, PA
this article is copied and pasted from the source link. either way what was said about the Bilderberg group is a fact.
i'd like to pose the same question...i'm not sure who it helps to submerge our FACTS AND TRUTH campaign into tin-foil-hat territory.
what does pointing out a fact have to do with people wearing tin foil hats? nothing. so you just killed your own efficacy. thanks for the comment though.
I am disappointed that auditting the fed is ALL that we are proposing. This is just a waste of time. So we'll audit the fed, find out what kind of criminals they are, and how they're manipulating the US to destroy the dollar, and our economy in order to make the transition to one world government/currency easier.Then what? Nothing! Congress is bought and paid for. They're not going to do anything. Obama is the best boy the Fed has ever had. He isn't going to do anything.
What we should be concentrating on is kicking their a$$es out of the US and back to Rothschild-land.
I watched maybe 5 minutes of this and just stopped, I couldn't take it. Almost everything he says is an outright lie. Saying that before 1913 we had no Central Bank and what's why we had economic crisis? Well what about the first and second national banks!? They caused all those crisis and that's why they were abolished! I seriously fear for our country when some one can lie so blatantly and people actually believe him.
Posted 08/27/09 10:45 AM CV NL Doetinchem, Netherlands
@chuckmc:
An audit is only a tool to gain more support for ending the FED. Next to nobody now knows what the FED does. As soon as more people find out, the support for ending the FED will grow.
It's incrementalism in the good direction, haha.
But to be honest: going from door to door might be a good idea to educate people about the FED.
Posted 08/27/09 6:41 PM AaronB Unanderra, Australia
"Money is the root of all evil". Believe this and you throw the baby out with the bath water. No sensible person would pay good money to inflict suffering, death and destruction on their fellow man. I mean let's put it to the free market test. Option 1: take out a 30 year mortgage to own your own home, or Option 2: take out a 30 year loan to fund a death squad of your choice (for entertainment? on TV each night). OK.
So how does evil get the money to operate? Where do the funds come from?
Simple - it must be stolen.
I now propose a new catch phrase, one that should be entrenched in the minds of all human beings on this planet. And it is this: "Stolen money is the root of all evil".
If you set up a society where the ruling class can steal from its citizens, then you have set up a society of evil.
Since the inception of the Federal Reserve, the dollar has lost 95% of its value. That's an awful lot of theft. That is a century of evil.
It is "the love of money is the root of all evil". Greed is very different from philanthropy, which uses money too. And most of us can agree that paying for poor children to get medical care is not evil! You must get your quotes right!
But greed, the love of money: That is why the rich construction guy in town will spread lies and rumors about his competition! He loves the money so much, he does not care who he hurts or how he obtains it! He loves the money and those type of people can never get enough.
Money can't buy you a good wife, or a loving family! But it can supply many our many needs. Thing is, most people have too many "wants" that they think are "needs"! Believe me, I have had money, a big house! But now, I am now poor. But, I have a good loving wife and she is worth more than her weight in GOLD. I feel I am much richer than I have ever been in my life!
But, I hate the things our government, and the federal reserve, are, both, hiding from us! The rich want to retain their position of power!
"Did he give a direct answer to a single one of those questions?"
That's exactly what I was going to ask. When the interviewer brought up the tax evasion question, he completely blew it off with gibberish that did not relate to the question in anyway.
Also, did anyone notice his body language? When he was asked a question, he rocked his body back in forth. He was acting like he just wanted to get the question over with as soon as possible.
I think Geitner is in the wrong career slot. He can tap dance better than a Las Vegas showgirl.
Of course its a line he doesn't want to cross. At least not facing forward. He'll be dragged across the line kicking and screaming like an eight-year-old on the way to the dentist.
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
—Thomas Jefferson
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