"Thank God It Passed!" -- FEDERAL RESERVE REFUSES TO SAY HOW MONEY IS SPENT

[Zhade]

We warned people - but many just wouldn't listen...

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Identify Bank Loans

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.

``The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that's a big problem,'' said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. ``In a liquid market, this wouldn't matter, but we're not. The market is very nervous and very thin.''

Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.

Utterly unsurprising

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Why are they being allowed to keep secret where OUR MONEY is going? nt

[bread_and_roses]

2. the utterly blatant cronyism and rampant swindling of the public coffers

is - I am wordless - Orwellian? Kafkaesque? Surreal? And the media and most of our "representatives" keep blathering away as if it were all legitimate, as if the "explanations" given made any sense or were not simply a pack of lies and propaganda. They will utterly beggar the country, we will all owe our souls to the "Company Store" and we'll still be nodding our heads as they chant their lying mantras.

[DainBramaged]

3. The final theft of the treasury, a going away present by the Rethugs to themselves

American will not elect a Republican majority again in my lifetime.

[Zhade]

4. Yay! We'll be broke, but at least there's that.

Talk about a mixed outcome!

[Double T]

5. Free Market Corruptionism must be preserved for the good of the criminal corporations.

Transparency, oversight, regulation and disclosure can never be allowed, so say the corporate lobbyists.

[KoKo]

26. Hot Damn! You said it: "FREE MARKET CORRUPTION!" Good on You! n/t

[QC]

6. What happened to those very loud apologists who were holding forth here

no so long ago.

They are strangely silent now.

[Zhade]

14. I'd stop ribbing their figurehead if they (and he) would just admit they were suckered...

...and declare they want to fight this bullshit.

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. I wouldn't hold my breath on that if I were you. Ain't gonna happen, know what I mean?

[SlowDownFast]

20. They Stay Away From These Bailout Threads

But Continue To Post Outrageous And Smarmy Twaddle Elsewhere Using Capital Letters To Start Every Word In Their Sentences.

:eyes:

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. ...

:evilgrin:

[Wiley50]

27. Broad Brush! I Didn't Support The Bailout

But I often use the capitalization thing

It makes a subject line not go un-noticed

I rarely use it in the body except in quotes

Methinks it's just a prejudice of yours

[OhioChick]

7. I saw this coming...... n/t

[ben_meyers]

8. How could that idiot McCain have voted for this

cluster fark of an insane bailout without having some real oversight in it? He at least should have had his "people" read the damn bill first! God, we dodged a bullet on that one.

[JackRiddler]

16. Is this a joke post?

Because surely you know who else voted for the plunder plan, don't you?

[ben_meyers]

17. Ya, but Hillary was out of the race by then

no harm no foul, so to speak.

[SlowDownFast]

21. You gotta be kidding.

I mean, I love Obama and the Democrats as much as the next DU'r, but....

[midnight]

9. Feingold called the plan "deeply flawed."

Feingold called the plan that secured Senate approval by a 74-25 vote "deeply flawed."

"It fails to offset the cost of the plan, leaving taxpayers to bear the burden of serious lapses of judgment by private financial institutions, their regulators, and the enablers in Washington who paved the way for this catastrophe by removing the safeguards that had protected consumers and the economy since the great depression," said Feingold. "The bailout legislation also fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn't do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess."http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/307502 This man continues to be the voice of reason on so many issues.

[pnwmom]

10. You're mixing two separate things. This is not about the $700 billion bailout.

It's still wrong -- we should have transparency in all of this -- but the emergency loans discussed here were not a part of the "bailout." They were given in separate programs that did NOT require Congressional approval.

"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."

[midnight]

12. pnwmom are you referering to my post or the original post that

sites this 700 billion bailout?

[pnwmom]

13. I was answering the OP. n/t

[Octafish]

11. These aren't just crooks. They are traitors.

Know your BFEE: Goldmine Sacked or The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One



Know your BFEE: Phil Gramm, the Meyer Lansky of the War Party, Set-Up the Biggest Bank Heist Ever

Perhaps America will yet put Abu Ghraib to good use.

[Hannah Bell]

15. You're slaves, accept your lot. The important people run stuff & do what they want.

Don't question them, they're much smarter than you.

[cyberpj]

18. And they always have. It's just that now it's blatant and in your face and with 5 fingers to nose..

And people are too distracted confused and uneducated to actually know what's going on.

[SlowDownFast]

22. And the Robber Barons will leave just enough

to keep the sheeple from rioting: cable TV/propaganda, food on the shelves and semi-affordable gas.

But take away any 2 out of the 3, then look out....

[happydreams]

24. Calling OPERATIONMINDFART. Yoo hoo!

:rofl:

We need your opinion from where you sit!

:rofl:

[sarcasmo]

28. He has his own thread going in GD.

On edit: it's not his own thread he just took it over, LOL.

[KoKo]

25. Well...I remember all those on the Cables/Financial News Sites PUSHING/PUSHING

that if we didn't do this we would "ALL BE DEAD!"

DU had posters swarming all over it cautioning and arguing "WE WOULD BE DEAD" if we didn't go with Paulson/Bernanke.

Who Knows...it was amazing how much "Push Back" those of us who were reluctant...saying that this whole "Paulson Hair on Fire" was like when George Tenant and others like Colin Powell and Condi Rice, URGED US TO GO TO WAR! because Saddam had "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and "Mushroom Clouds" would appear over America.

Same old "Marketing Campaign" by all those folks who brought us IRAQ WAR DEVASTATION!