It’s been rather quiet on the Ron Paul front, but the presidential candidate recently questioned Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke on monetary policy, one of the Libertarian’s favorite themes.

While Paul’s quest to end the Fed, or to at least increase its transparency, may seem to be a losing battle to many observers, he’s certainly educated the public on the Fed’s culpability in encouraging reckless banking and investment practices, as well as government largesse.

One of the best exchanges between Paul and Bernanke was as follows:

Paul: Under the Constitution, who has the authority to manage monetary policy?

Bernanke: The Congress has the authority and it’s delegated it to the Feder Reserve. That’s a policy decision that you’ve made.

 

Paul: But they can’t transfer authority. You can’t amend the Constitution by just saying ‘Ee’re gonna create some secret of individuals and banks.” That’s amending the Constitution. You can’t do that! … Which branch of government has the right of oversight [of the Federal Reserve]?