Signoraggio e operazioni "coperte" (seigniorage and covert action)

The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History - by Robert L. Hetzel, Cambridge University Press, 2008
Robert Hetzel = Senior Research Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Appendix: Seigniorage and Credit Allocation
Pagg. 215-216-217
http://books.google.com/books?id=KJs1WDN54wEC&pg=RA1-PA215&dq=seigniorage+and+credit+allocation&ei=mTH9SYa6GJGuzQTRmtTEAw
Signoraggio utilizzato per effettuare politica fiscale ed estera, da parte della FED, di nascosto e SENZA l'autorizzazione da parte del Congresso.
Un miliardo di dollari alla Banca d'Italia nel 1973...
(linea di credito da due a tre miliardi di dollari)
Praticamente: signoraggio utilizzato per effettuare operazioni "coperte"...
Il sistema iniziò nel 1962 attraverso la creazione di linee di credito tramite SWAP...
Testuale:
The Fed established swap lines with foreign central banks in 1962 to defend the fixed exchange rate system without raising interest rates (Hetzel 1996). The collapse of the fixed rate system in 1973 eliminated the rationale for swaps. The Fed, however, put them to another use. For instance, in 1973, the administration asked the Fed to help Italy deal with the increase in its balance of payments deficit in the aftermath of the large rise in oil prices. "The Federal Reserve.. came to the aid of Italy, whose chronic political instability prevented rapid response to the energy crisis. The central bank expanded its swap line with the Bank of Italy from $2 billion to $3 billion to help that country finance imports in the short run" (Wells 1994, 125). The use of swaps to provide short-term assistance to foreign countries has prompted debate within the FOMC,. In response to a question from a governor about whether the Fed might provide long-term assistance to Italy, Burns (Board of Governors Minutes July 16, 1974, 783) responded: "If the Federal Reserve were to abandon the principle that the swap lines were available only to meet short-term needs, there would be a natural tendency for other agencies of Government to look to the System, rather than to Congress, for the resources to deal with a broad variety of international financial and political problems. If the System were to provide those resources it would, in effect, be substituting its own authority for that of Congress. A decisive case could then be made in support of the charge that the System was using Federal moneys without regard to the interest of the Congress."

Congress delegated to the Fed the Monopoly on the creation of the monetary base. Money creation allows the Fed to undertake fiscal policy independent of Congress. Such operations are not subject to the open debate generated by congressional actions. Therefore, they limit the accountability provided for in the provision of the Constitution that "[n]o money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law." The use of seigniorage revenues by the central bank for purposes other than financing its own operations reduces the public's ability to monitor government activities and erodes constitutional safeguards.