In the 1970s, the Congress deliberately excluded monetary policy deliberations, decisions, and actions from the scope of GAO reviews. In doing so, the Congress carefully balanced the need for democratic accountability with the benefits that flow from keeping monetary policy free from short-term political pressures.
I will attempt to take up as many aspects of a central bank’s operations as possible. The episodes are the Lehman shock, the European debt crisis, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the rapid aging of Japan’s economy.