CNBC Guest Blog
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Schork Oil Outlook: Gas Bulls Pinning Hopes on Mother Nature
- Busch: The Debt-Interest Rate Paradox
- Busch: Markets Smell a Country Rat
- Schork Oil Outlook: Mission Impossible For The Bears?
- Losey: Asset Allocation At Retirement
- Farrell: Obama Hectored, Ignored and Restricted?
- Don't Dwell on Investment Mistakes; Move on, Like Buffett
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- Schork Oil Outlook: Some New Hope For Nat Gas Bulls
MOST SHARED
- Banks Play Down Dubai Exposure, Investors Still Wary
- No Thanksgiving Rest for Retailers in Sales Race
- UK's Darling to Downgrade 2009 Growth Forecast
- More Asia Executives Resigned to Economy Flights: Survey
- Attraction of Switzerland to Businesses
- US Markets Bracing for Selloff On Worries About Dubai's Debt
- Oil Falls Below $74 on Dubai Default Worries
- Dubai Debt Delays Revive Fear of Financial Crisis
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- Car Insurance Scofflaws Raise Health Reform Doubt
- Rush Starts as Holiday Shopping Season Revs Up
- US Markets Bracing for Selloff on Dubai Debt Worries
- US Dollar Falls to 14-Year Low Against the Yen
- ING Prices Share Issue at Hefty Discount
- UK's Darling to Downgrade 2009 Growth Forecast
- Tommy Hilfiger's Estate in Conn. Sells for $20 Million
- Cheap Robotic Hamsters Are Holiday's Unlikely Craze
- Fannie Mae to Tighten Lending Standards: Report
RSS FEED
Text Size 
There is a sentence in the new financial regulatory proposal that has me out of my seat. It says, "We also propose that the Federal Reserve Board receive prior written approval from the Secretary of the Treasury for emergency lending under its 'unusual and exigent circumstances' authority."
The Secretary of the Treasury is an appointed position and the Fed has been an independent agency free from the politics of the Oval Office. To me, this is a step towards the politicization of the Fed and is upsetting and dangerous. The recent ability of the Fed to act and act quickly arguably saved the system. Throwing the emergency ability to act into the political arena is not a good idea.
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I think I need to brush off the paranoid part of my personality. This could be a step towards moving the Fed ever closer to the White House.
_______________________________________
Vincent Farrell, Jr. is chief investment officer at Soleil Securities Group and a regular contributor to CNBC. 
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes