SusanG at DailyKos has an entry entitled, “Too big to fail. Or to pay taxes. Or to be identified.” In part, she cites a Bloomberg news article which reveals:
The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.
So, are they just looting the joint or is something more respectable going on? “Trust us,” seems to be the answer.
They’re probably going to withhold the information on the two trillion dollars until Barack Obama produces his U.S. birth certificate or some sort foolishness…
I worry it all went to that Nigerian Prince I keep getting emails about.
Might have been nice if the good folks in the Congress had read the law they were authorizing prior to voting on it. They might have begun to have a clue then.
“Trust us” was as much the Congress’, and Bush’s, answer as is the Treasury’s and the Fed’s.
My understanding is that this opaque loan about which they aren’t providing information was made under authority aside from the recent bailout legislation. Not saying they shouldn’t have looked at the power they were giving the Treasury Department, but their abdication of responsibility appears to have come at a different time.