At a conference yesterday, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and a former chief economist at the World Bank, said the very structure of the Federal Reserve system is so fraught with conflicts that it's "corrupt." To Stiglitz, the core issue is that regional Fed banks, such as the New York Fed, are partly governed by the very banks they're supposed to police.  That is a clear conflict of interest.  Said Stiglitz: "It's time for us to reflect on our own structure today, and to say there are parts that can be improved."

The Federal Reserve is in desperate need of reform.  It needs to be more accountable to taxpayers.  And that’s why I’m a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which would audit the Federal Reserve.