Our Lawless Central Bank

The economic arguments against central banks are numerous to say the least. Through the writings of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard we have a wide variety of critiques that explain the many ways the central banks distort economies, cause booms and busts, punish savers, and chose winners and losers through monetary policy.
But, even if confronted with these arguments, and one remains supportive of central banks, other non-economic arguments must still be addressed.
For example, it is becoming increasing important – in our current age of “non-traditional” monetary policy – to take note of the fact that central banks, and especially the Federal Reserve, are essentially unrestrained by law.
Economists themselves often defend this total unmooring from legal or political accountability, saying it is necessary for the Fed to have “independence” from elected officials.
In reality, however, this “independence” is best described as “total lack of accountability.”
Writing in today’s Dallas Morning News, Texas Tech economist Alexander William Salter writes:

This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on 06/22/2017.