I agree with Judge Andrew Napolitano, who said last week, "We know more about the CIA than we do about the Federal Reserve."

The Federal Reserve is the Freemasonry of government agencies. It is a virtual secret society unto itself -- a group of unelected brokers who hold the value of our dollar in the palms of their hands. This one agency, with its power to raise and lower interest rates, has exercised more control over the economy than any other government body.

So with that type of single-handed power, why should we be surprised that the U.S. Senate blocked a bill last week to audit the Federal Reserve? 'Tis true! Rep. Ron Paul and more than half of his colleagues in the House co-sponsored the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207, which they hope to have hearings on soon. On the Senate side, Sens. Jim DeMint, Mike Crapo and David Vitter co-sponsored S 604, companion legislation introduced by Bernie Sanders. But it was stopped cold before even being introduced on the floor on "procedural grounds."

So why does this federal agency need a complete auditing? It's very simple: America is in the worst economic situation since the Great Depression; the value of the dollar is tanking on the world market; and the Federal Reserve wields the greatest power to control it, with virtually no accountability -- let alone that the American people and even Congress have virtually no knowledge of what those inside are doing day to day.

The way I see it, there are two primary problems with the Federal Reserve. First, its very existence is a sheer contradiction of the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. As Ron Paul explained last week: "Our Founding Fathers never intended for a single entity such as the Federal Reserve to have this much power. In fact, there is no authority in the Constitution for the federal government to create a central bank, to enact legal tender laws, or to print paper money. The Tenth Amendment is quite clear that 'The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Secondly, the Federal Reserve is flat-out bad for the economy in the long run because it creates false fronts or temporary escalations in the free market, which eventually cycle around and lead to downturns or more need for other Fed fixes. Even if it creates several cycles of credit rushes (which it deems as "signs of prosperity"), sooner or later, the false foundation crumbles and we find ourselves in an economic hole that the Fed can't bail us out of -- which is exactly where we are now in this recession. Continued...