Poll: Majority casts a skeptical eye on Fed

A majority of Americans want the Federal Reserve to be subjected to greater Congressional oversight or abolished altogether, according to a Bloomberg National poll.

Only 37 percent of those polled want the Fed left alone, while 39 percent said it should be held more accountable and 16 percent said it should be abolished, Bloomberg reported.

And dissatisfaction of the Fed does not break prominently down party lines. Republicans and independents were slightly more likely to call for the end of the Fed, at 16 percent and 19 percent respectively, while 12 percent of Democrats supported the dissolution of the central bank.

People polled that aligned themselves with the Tea Party were the most likely to want to see the Fed abolished at 21 percent. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a Tea Party favorite, has been a longtime vocal critic of the Fed and recently authored the book "End the Fed."

Paul was recently named chairman of the House Financial Services Committee's subcommittee that oversees the Fed.

The poll comes after weeks of political criticism of the Fed, mostly centered on its decision to buy $600 billion of Treasury bonds in a second "quantitative easing" effort. The central bank maintains it would lower long-term interest rates and boost private lending, but Republicans have contended that it would cause inflation and devalue the dollar. Some lawmakers have called for the Fed's mandate to be refined. Instead of trying to both maximize employment and control inflation, they argue the Fed should focus just on price stability.

Earlier this month, the Fed completed a mandate release of data surrounding more than 21,000 transactions it entered into during the height of the financial crisis. The disclosure, mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, revealed the Fed loaned out $3.3 trillion in mostly short-term loans to financial institutions, global corporations and even other foreign banks. The revelation led to calls for increased scrutiny of the Fed from critical lawmakers.

The public pressure on the Fed might be driving it to ramp up its PR machine. Chairman Ben Bernanke sat down for a rare nationally televised interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," where he downplayed concerns for inflation, saying he was 100 percent certain the Fed had the tools to combat it. In addition, minutes from a recent Fed meeting state that officials discussed ways to better inform the public about its policies, including have Bernanke provide regular press briefings.