Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion
Bloomberg L.P., December 12th 2008
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) - The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.
Dirty Secret Of The Bailout: Thirty-Two Words That None Dare Utter
Huffington Post
A critical - and radical - component of the bailout package proposed by the Bush administration has thus far failed to garner the serious attention of anyone in the press. Section 8 (which ironically reminds one of the popular name of the portion of the 1937 Housing Act that paved the way for subsidized affordable housing ) of this legislation is just a single sentence of thirty-two words, but it represents a significant consolidation of power and an abdication of oversight authority that's so flat-out astounding that it ought to set one's hair on fire. It reads, in its entirety:
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
2. Federal Reserve Inspector Coleman Does Not Know the Recipient of $1 Trillion of Bailout Funds, The Federal Reserve Losses, or The Amount of Off Balance Sheet Transactions
Rep. Alan Grayson: Alright, well... what about one trillion dollars plus in expansion of the Federal Reserve balance sheet since last September? Have you conducted any investigations regarding that?
Federal Inspector General: We...right now we have a um, it's called, we call it a review, and uh, prior to the, because of the current investigation, they have different uh connotations. We're actually conducting a fairly high level review of the various lending facilities collectively. Which would include, uh, you know the TALF, uh, a variety of the different programs that are in progress. We're looking at them at a fairly high level to identify risk.
Rep. Alan Grayson: Well, I understand that but we're talking about events that started unfolding eight months ago. Have you reached any conclusions about the Fed expanding it's balance sheet by over a trillion dollars since last September?
Federal Inspector General: We have not yet reached any conclusions.
Rep. Alan Grayson: Do you know who received that money?
Federal Inspector General: For the... we, we're in the process right now of doing our review and um...
Rep. Alan Grayson: Right, but you're the Inspector General, my ans [sic], my question specifically is do you know who received that one trillion dollars-plus that the Fed extended and put on it's balance sheet since last September? Do you know the identity of the recipient?
Federal Inspector General: I do not know. We have not looked at that specific area at this particular point on those reviews.
"The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducts independent and objective audits, inspections, evaluations, investigations, and other reviews related to programs and operations of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board)." - FederalReserve.Gov
About Federal Reserve Inspector General Coleman
FederalReserve.Gov
Elizabeth A. Coleman was appointed Inspector General for the Board effective May 6, 2007. In this role, Ms. Coleman leads a staff responsible for promoting economy, efficiency,and effectiveness within Board programs and operations. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is also responsible for preventing and detecting waste, fraud, and abuse at the Board, among other duties. The OIG achieves its legislative mandate through audits, evaluations, investigations, legislative reviews, and by keeping the Chairman of the Board and Congress fully informed.
Ms. Coleman joined the Board's OIG in 1989 as a senior auditor. She was promoted to program manager in 1999 and to senior program manager in 2001. She was appointed to the official staff in 2004, as the Assistant Inspector General for Communications and Quality Assurance. Over the last eight years, Ms. Coleman has worked closely with the Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency, a professional organization of about thirty statutory Inspectors General who are appointed by their agency heads in certain designated federal entities, including the Board.
Prior to joining the Board's staff, she was employed by the Government Accountability Office. Ms. Coleman has a BBA from James Madison University and is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, Georgetown University. She also attended the Federal Reserve System’s Trailblazers Leadership Conference. Ms. Coleman is a Certified Information Systems Auditor.
3. Corporate Welfare
Hunt on For Loopholes in Obama Exec Pay Caps
MSNBC
NEW YORK - The squeeze on big paydays for executives of bailed-out banks will probably leave Wall Street plenty of wiggle room.
Consultants on executive pay say the White House caps imposed Wednesday will probably apply only to a few executives — not star traders, brokers and salespeople who routinely earn whopping pay packages.
Others note Wall Street typically finds ways to exploit loopholes and figure this time will be no different.
4. Growing Price of the Bailout
U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs
Bloomberg L.P., February 9th 2009
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.
The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.
Financial Rescue Nears GDP as Pledges Top $12.8 Trillion
Bloomberg L.P., March 31, 2009
March 31 (Bloomberg) - The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.
New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and other assets from U.S. banks. The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.
5. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich
6. Federal Government Overpaid Citigroup for Securities; Citigroup Refuses to Pay Back Taxpayers
7. Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit Lied About His Salary
Pandit Told Congress Compensation Was $1 Million, But Bank Filing Shows $10.8 Million
The Huffington Post, 3/5/09
Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit received nearly $11 million of compensation in 2008.
A month earlier, he testified to Congress that his compensation for 2008 was just $1 million.
"My compensation for the year 2008 was my salary, which was $1 million," he told the House Committee on Financial Services on February 11, failing to mention his sign-on and retention awards, as well as stock and option awards.
At the same hearing, Pandit pledged to accept a salary of just $1 a year and no bonus until Citibank once again posted a profit.
8. Federal Reserve Transparency Act
Audit the Federal Reserve
RonPaul.com
Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve (HR 1207) now has 190 co-sponsors, and the numbers keep growing!
This is history in the making, and victory is within reach. Imagine what will happen if HR 1207, The Federal Reserve Transparency Act, comes up for vote in Congress! With more than 40% of the House of Representatives already co-sponsoring this bill, it has real potential to pass — BUT only if we educate and rally the people to support it and get our Congresspeople to put it to vote and pass it.
8. The Treasury Has $700 Billion in TARP funds to Use "Indefinitely"
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