Ben Bernanke’s new overseer

If you thought Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hated testifying in front of Congress before, it’s about to get a lot worse. Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) — author most recently of the best-selling End the Fed — is about to become chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy. That means he’ll have oversight over the Federal Reserve Bank with subpoena power.

Paul doesn’t think he’ll be able to move his proposal to eliminate the Fed, or to allow Americans to use gold instead of paper money as currency. But he said he does intend to use his new position as “a mini-bully pulpit” to criticize Fed policy and call more attention to what he sees as its negative consequences. And he’s confident that American voters are ready to delve into those monetary policy questions.

“Five years ago they wouldn’t have listened. Now they will,” he said. “We’ve gained a lot of credibility in making the Federal Reserve an issue since the market collapse.”

And Paul vows to try again to authorize Congressional audits of the Fed’s decisions on the economy, a proposal that passed the House last year but was essentially gutted from the final version of the financial regulatory overhaul legislation.