Ben Bernanke wants the Senate Banking Committee to reconfirm him as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. U.S. Representative Alan Grayson wants to see more information about the inner workings of the Fed before Bernanke is reconfirmed, “given how little is known about what he has actually done.”

In a mass-emailing, Grayson points out that “Ben Bernanke didn’t see the crisis coming and has added $1.2 trillion to the Fed’s balance sheet through covert bailouts.” He points out that there can’t be a full debate over Bernanke’s “record if nothing is public.” That’s why Grayson is asking for the release of the following information:

• Information that Bloomberg reporter Mark Pittman has requested via a Freedom of Information Act Request on the Bear Stearns rescue and that the Federal Reserve is contesting in the courts.
• Information I requested in February on which institutions received the additional $1.2 trillion, how much each institution received, and what was promised in return.
• All Federal Reserve documents that went to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office relating to the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch merger in which potentially illegal and coercive activity might have occurred, as well as all Federal Reserve documents relating to the lawsuit pursued by Merrill Lynch shareholders in the U.S. District court for the Southern District of New York.
• Transcripts of all Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes up to and including that of September 2009.
• Full disclosure of all terms and conditions of all off-balance sheet Fed transactions in the past three years.

If this controversy were about ACORN, or any other person or organization without great power, Congress would have turned the organization inside out with subpoenas, and we would have had a real discussion.  I agree with Grayson that it’s time to shine much more light on the Fed, especially in light of these statistics recently reported by Think Progress.