"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws"
~ Mayer Amschel Rothschild

Republican Herman Cain's surge in the polls over the last month is nothing short of remarkable. For months, Cain was considered no more than cannon fodder for a media-hyped showdown between the GOP's anointed favorites: Rick Perry & Mitt Romney. Alongside fellow fringe candidates Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and John Huntsman, Cain was polling nationally somewhere in the 5% range only a few months ago. But a surprising upset showing at the Florida Straw Poll in September put wind in the sails of the Cain campaign and much of the mainstream media took notice.

On the face of things, Mr. Cain seems like a worthy candidate to challenge President Obama. A self-made man from humble beginnings, Mr. Cain is the only Republican candidate who is not a professional politician, a true "Washington Outsider." His resume is littered with examples of successful turnarounds of failing businesses and his simplistic "9-9-9" tax reform plan has given him a catchy slogan for his stump speech.

What caught this columnist off-guard was the source of Mr. Cain's support. Even though the media has begun to focus on decades old allegations of harassment towards his female subordinates, his poll numbers remain surprisingly strong. This is due largely in part to the Tea Party, the same group formed from the ashes of the biggest financial meltdown since 1929, which seems to have thrown its collective weight behind the Cain campaign. This is especially surprising given one of the lines on Mr. Cain's resume: Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Federal Reserve (or FED), (especially those who may think it is an agency of the Federal government) let me take the opportunity to correct you. The Federal Reserve is no more a part of the Federal government than Federal Express. In fact, it is a collective of 12 privately owned banks across the country that insures, supervises, regulates and stabilizes the financial system of the United States. More importantly, they regulate the interest rate that smaller banks pay to borrow money from the Federal Reserve system. A longtime criticism of the Federal Reserve system has been that artificially lowering interest rates to stabilize the economy has been a tool of Washington politicians, ballooning our national debt and creating "Boom & Bust" cycles that throw us into recessions every few years in order to "correct" the free market.

If that weren't enough, during the bailouts of 2008 the FED issued approximately 16 trillion dollars in loans, while releasing little or no public information to indicate where and to whom the money was lent. We have since learned that much of that bailout money went to foreign banks in places like Belgium, Japan and yes, even to Gaddafi's Libya.

Dr. Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas and current candidate for President has sponsored a bill (HR 459, S 202) entitled "the Federal Reserve Transparency Act", which would REQUIRE the Federal Reserve (for the first time in its history) to fully disclose the details of its lending practices. Nicknamed "Audit the Fed" by supporters, this bill currently has 183 cosponsors in the House and 18 in the Senate.

As Chairman of one of the local FED Banks, Mr. Cain must be aware of the very legitimate and valid criticisms of the Federal Reserve system.

When asked about Dr. Paul's bill, however, Mr. Cain simply stated "I do not object to the Federal Reserve being audited, I simply said if someone wants to initiate that action go right ahead, it doesn't bother me." He apparently disagreed vehemently with the Heman Cain who said in December of 2009, "Some people say that we ought to audit the Fed. Here's what I do know. The Federal Reserve already has so many internal audits it's ridiculous. I don't know why people think we're gonna learn this great amount of information by auditing the Federal Reserve. I think a lot of people are calling for this audit of the Federal Reserve because they don't know enough about it. There's no hidden secrets going on in the Federal Reserve to my knowledge."

If the first Herman Cain was correct and there are no hidden secrets to the current Federal Reserve system, an open audit should be a simple task.

Dismissing concerns over the transparency our current financial system as frivolous, however, puts Cain at odds with members of the same Tea Party that originally organized to protest many of these same issues.

In any case, Cain comes out of the gate not as an outsider, but someone so entrenched in the current Washington culture that he becomes more of the same.