Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan's Bank
This new book was written by Robert Auerbach,
Professor of Public Affairs at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.
He served 11 years as economist for the United States House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services helping Chairman Henry B. Gonzalez carry out oversight functions of the nation's central bank led by Alan Greenspan.
The Federal Reserve—the central bank of the United States—is the most powerful peacetime bureaucracy in the federal government. Under the chairmanship of Alan Greenspan (1987-2006), the Fed achieved near mythical status for its part in managing the economy, and Greenspan was lauded as a genius. Few seemed to notice or care that Fed officials operated secretly with almost no public accountability. There was a courageous exception to this lack of oversight, however: Henry B. Gonzalez (D-TX)—chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services (banking) Committee.
In Deception and Abuse at the Fed, Robert Auerbach, a former banking committee investigator, recounts major instances of Fed mismanagement and abuse of power that were exposed by Rep. Gonzalez, including:
Auerbach provides documentation of these and other abuses at the Fed, which confirms Rep. Gonzalez's belief that no government agency should be allowed to operate with the secrecy and independence in which the Federal Reserve has shrouded itself. Auerbach concludes with recommendations for specific, broad-ranging reforms that will make the Fed accountable to the government and the people of the United States.