Ritholtz:

(Sept 26, 2009)

(strong critic of the Fed, on speaking to Congress about reform and about oversight by Congress of the Fed)

“I was invited to testify this week to the House Financial Services Committee about reform and regulation.

I politely demurred.

Quite bluntly, I didn’t see how speaking to Congress would matter one tiny bit. Its not like they seem to be paying much attention to witnesses, or have very much interest in figuring out what was the cause of the crisis. Besides, they seem to be beholden to those whose interests are to not fix the problems at hand.

While I have been critical of the Federal Reserve (especially the Greenspan years), my beef with them has been their judgment and decision-making process. Congress, on the other hand, is a whole different matter. Its not their judgment, but rather, the fact they are owned not by the American people, but by lobbyists, and corporate interests. They have become structurally deformed.

(Lila: So who owns the bankers and the Fed? The American people?)

How weird is it for me, who spent so many pages blaming the Fed for much of the recent crisis, to find myself in a position of defending them from outside political pressure?”

My Comment

Oh, not weird at all. Perfectly transparent.

Here´s why.

It´s OK for establishment critics to criticize Obama. It´s OK to criticize Congress, and the Regulatory Agencies. And to call them all bought and paid for by corporate interests. It´s OK to criticize the oil industry, and the defense industry, and fundamentalist Christians, Bush, Cheney, Phil Gramm, and abstractions like “the power structure”. It´s OK to criticize speculators (in the abstract) and the Fed (in theory). It´s OK to lecture African leaders. Or the Indian caste system. Or socialism or capitalism..or greed…or the Catholic church.

But it´s never OK to actually do anything that really limits the power of the bankers and financiers at the heart of the problem.

No audit of the fed.

No investigation of the actual, provable corruption of the financial media, the academic peer review process, prize committees,  etc. etc.

No lawsuits against bankers, without retaliation from the SEC.