As a Seeking Alpha contributor and reader, it saddens me that many of the commenters there seem to be members of what Paul Krugman would call the angry far-right irrational fringe.
A fairly cogent article (not by me, I hasten to point out) on the current attack by Congress against the independence of the Federal Reserve and its potential consequences got destroyed by about 100 remarkably self-similar comments the contents of which can be summed up as follows:
1. Whoever wrote this article is ignorant and stupid, and should stop writing articles.
2. The Fed is a criminal enterprise which has:
- debased the dollar
- betrayed the Constitution and all this country holds dear (liberty above all).
3. Ron Paul is our hero. He's the only man in America who truly gets it. He wants the Fed dead, therefore we want the Fed dead.
4. To the writer of this article: you are so ignorant and stupid, you can only be a paid shill for the Fed.
I couldn't help (I'm weak that way) adding a nutty comment of my own, which will probably be pilloried:
One problem with giving Congress more authority over the Fed (and I'm not saying there are no advantages) is that when time comes for the Fed to start raising interest rates while unemployment is still high (in about a year or so), Congress will try to stop it at all cost. I agree with most posters that the Fed has already lost a lot of its independence, particularly after all the "innovative" (irresponsible?) steps it took during the financial crisis. Less independence means less ability to fight inflation. So why make the Fed even less independent by giving Congress more say into what it does?
As far as Ron Paul is concerned, he wants to kill the Fed, auditing it being only the first step. He's been crystal clear about it. I see a lot of commenters agree with that goal. Fine. But don't give me any BS about the merits of transparency when all you want to do is look into the Fed's entrails to better rip them out!"
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