NNPA via Washington Informer: Defending Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ Bill

by Danny J. Bakewell, Sr.

Let's start at the beginning: the Federal Reserve system was started in secrecy by the most powerful and influential financiers in America almost a century ago, allegedly in response to a growing need for an organized central banking system. The Federal Reserve Bank was created by the 1913 Federal Reserve Act.

This put the nation's monetary supply in the hands of an exclusive, private, secretive organization of rich, white men that has operated independently of the American government since that time. There are 12 regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, and these banks have been able to operate outside of government control for the past 97 years.

This can be a good or a bad thing, depending upon your viewpoint or your ethnic origin. The Wall Street Journal, in a recent op-ed piece entitled "Politicizing the Fed," Representative Maxine Waters (Dem-CA) and her democratic cohorts are criticized and accused of seeking "...the political allocation of credit" because of a proposal to place more accountability on the Feds.

The issue that is drawing the most steam is connected with Subtitle I, Section 1801 of the House financial reform bill titled "Inclusion of Minorities and Women; Diversity in Agency Workforce." In essence, according to the article, this would call for "each federal financial agency, the Fed Board of Governors and the 12 regional Fed banks to establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion."

In other words, Maxine Waters is calling for inclusion. What a crazy idea!  The op-ed opines that the Feds already dictate racial and gender hiring through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other assorted federal laws, which makes the Waters provision "redundant." Redundant? If we didn't need these provisions, where are all of the minorities and women with the Feds now?

One needs but a cursory view of American history to know that inclusion has not been one of America's strongest points when it comes to money and power. If that were not the case, Affirmative Action, seen by proponents as a step to ensure inclusion of minorities and women, would not have been fought tooth and nail at every turn.

The fact of the matter is that America does not have a level playing field which would allow those who are not White and male an equal opportunity to participate on a meaningful level in the halls of financial power. And even though we have elected a Black president, it didn't level the playing field.

It is interesting to note that those who hold the opinion that the bill will unnecessarily place too much power in the hands of the Congress and White House did not complain when the American banking system was placed lock, stock and barrel in the hands of several very powerful white financiers 97 years ago.

This is the very opposite of diversity, and the situation remains the same today. The Feds have not only operated independently of the government, they have been out of control and reckless, harming a lot of people in the process, which is the very reason that Congress has proposed legislation to bring it under control.

The most disturbing aspect of the Wall Street Journal's stance, however, is the notion that mandating the inclusion of minorities and women is tantamount to automatically dumbing down the system. This can be inferred by the statement "Congress will now order regulators to allocate credit by race and gender. Isn't the point of this financial reform supposed to be to make regulators better judges of systemic risks, which means focusing on financial safety and soundness?"

One would be led to believe by this these words that "inclusion" and "quality" are mutually exclusive. They aren't. It is for this reason, among others, that somebody needs to keep an eye on the old boys club that has had a monopoly on financial policy for almost a century.

The Fed's 100th birthday is right around the corner, and this is a fitting time to re-think the Federal Reserve system. Maxine Waters' proposal is a good place to start, and NNPA's 200-plus Black publishers applaud and support her and her colleagues for this effort!