Quote Originally Posted by GGT View Post
It's a sad commentary when tax payers having full disclosure and transparency for OUR OWN MONEY is considered "politicizing". Perhaps it's the other way around---that a "non-political" arm of the government can only do their job when it's done in secrecy?
The issue isn't disclosure or transparency - the GAO audits every year are given to Congress. The issue is that if Congress (or another body) is given the power to investigate monetary policy decisions of the Fed (as opposed to other parts of the audit, such as making sure the Fed isn't stealing money, which is perfectly reasonable), it will open the door to political/partisan control of the central bank. We've seen what this can do in other countries - just look at Argentina's woes right now, let alone a whole host of other countries. Politicians see monetary policy as a very powerful lever they can pull to mask other deficiencies in their economy. If it destroys the long term competitiveness and solvency of their country, what do they care? Monetary policy is best left to technocrats.


BTW, as for LIBOR and TIBOR, obviously everything is related (though not directly tied) to the price of money set by a central bank. But banks decide on their spread, which is limited by competition. You seemed to think it moronic that someone might think a bank set the interest rate they offer, when in fact they actually do.