Federal Reserve ordered to disclose recipients of bailout funds

Here’s some good news from the U.S. Supreme Court:

The Federal Reserve will disclose details of emergency loans it made to banks in 2008, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an industry appeal that aimed to shield the records from public view.

The justices today left intact a court order that gives the Fed five days to release the records, sought by Bloomberg News’s parent company, Bloomberg LP. The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the nation’s largest commercial banks, had asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

It takes some real chutzpah to deny the public the right to know how $3.5 trillion in public funds were used.

Share

Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    We're starting to find out the recipients of the Federal Reserve's largess:

    "During the height of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, as investors and firms hoarded cash, the Fed reduced its rates to kickstart lending in the broader economy. Arab Banking Corp., a $28 billion lender now 59 percent-owned by Libya's central bank, borrowed at least $3.2 billion during this time. The Fed charged it an interest rate ranging from 2.25 percent to as low as 1.25 percent on those

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/federal-… regular Fed data show. AAA-rated corporations paid bondholders an average rate ranging from 5.63 percent to 6.37 percent during the same period, according to the Fed."

  2. Avatar of Tim Hogan
    Tim Hogan

    I signed the petition to Audit the Fed! I have no affiliation with nor even know what the Campaign for Liberty is. A link to sign the petition showed up in an e-mail and I signed it. I'm sure there may be others if the name or group doesn't fit your ideology; I don't care, they want something I want.

    http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/audit

    Besides, it'll scare the heck out of the righties and the Congress and Senate to get a bunch of us supporting the audit!

    1. Avatar of Erich Vieth
      Erich Vieth

      Tim: I don't think that auditing the fed is a right versus left issue. It's big money versus not-big-money.

  3. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    "In the midst of the global financial crisis in 2008, the Federal Reserve lent Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Royal Bank of Scotland at least $30 billion each at interest rates as low as 0.01 percent with no public disclosure of the details, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

    The latest revelations about the covert infusions of credit provided by the Fed to some of the world's largest banks has amplified accusations that the central bank is a power unto itself, operating according to its own devices and in the interest of major financial institutions — and beyond accountability to taxpayers."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/26/federal-

Leave a Reply