Federal Reserve donates to Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz campaigns

Is the Federal Reserve politically independent? Ha! When someone says the United States central bank is independent of politics, everyone should just laugh hysterically. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything the Fed does is based on politics, and it has been since its inception. From budget deficits to funding of government programs, the Fed is there to bail out administrations, both Republicans and Democrats.

The question of the Fed’s independence from politics has come under the spotlight after it was revealed by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard has donated $750 to the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton between November and January. It isn’t surprising due to the connection: her husband, Kurt Campbell, previously served under then Secretary of State Clinton as assistant secretary for east Asian and Pacific affairs.

As a matter of fact, the FEC has found that the Fed has contributed $18,000 to Clinton’s campaign altogether. The central bank has also doled out $2,000 to Ted Cruz’s campaign and $750 for Marco Rubio. What about for Donald Trump? Zero.

According to TruthinMedia:

“It is currently legal for Fed governors, who are appointed by the president and help steer the private central bank’s monetary policy decisions, to donate to political campaigns and causes. However, it is uncommon for them to do so, and Brainard’s donations have sparked questions as to whether her advocacy for Clinton undermines the Federal Reserve’s claim that it is politically independent.”

ZeroHedge is right: the Fed’s members are ideologically biased.

But how come the Fed isn’t showing any love for Trump? Perhaps it’s because he supports an audit of the Federal Reserve (SEE: Donald Trump wants to audit the Federal Reserve, criticizes Ted Cruz for missing key vote) and has derided its leadership.

Earlier this year, Trump lambasted Cruz for missing a key vote on a bill that would audit the central bank.

It is so important to audit The Federal Reserve, and yet Ted Cruz missed the vote on the bill that would allow this to be done.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2016

Trump insider Roger Stone told InfoWars that the Republican frontunner is “deeply suspicious of the Fed.”

“He’s not a big fan of the Fed. He is scaring the central bankers; he is scaring the Washington/Wall Street/D.C. consultant/lobbyist class,” Stone said. “He’s deeply suspicious of the Fed and I think he is open-minded about the Fed… I’d suspect you’d get an audit of the Fed [with Trump].”

Over the past year, Trump has criticized Fed Chair Janet Yellen, accused the Fed of playing politics with interest rates and argued that the Fed is creating a bubble. It’s unclear if Trump has ever read any of the works by Ludwig von Mises or Murray Rothbard, but at least he has chastized the Fed in the past. Too bad he hasn’t gone far enough like Ron Paul did in 2008 and 2012.