Senate amendment wants the Fed to name names

Posted Apr 3rd 2009 2:00PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis

The American people are mad as hell at all the money that has been given to who knows who. So Senators Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Jim Webb and Jim Bunning sponsored an amendment to a budget blueprint to get at more transparency as to where all this money is going. Bernie Sanders is quoted as saying: " The American people have the right to know who the Fed is lending taxpayer dollars to, how much they are getting and what the Fed is asking in return for the money."

The amendment calls on the Fed to identify each firm it has given assistance to, how much the assistance was worth and what the firm is doing with the money. It is important to note that the amendment passed by a vote of 59 to 39. In other words over half the Senate is leaning on the Fed for more information about what they are doing.

The Fed shot back saying that they do not name the recipients of loans because public knowledge that an institution cannot obtain funds in the open market could provide a run on that firm.

In a second action the Senate Banking Committee headed by Senators Dodd and Shelby approved an amendment that would require the Fed to provide more information about collateral that has been posted against loans and in losses incurred as a result of bailouts.

Whether or not anything comes to pass on these amendments remains to be seen.

Do you believe that the Fed will release this information?

Tags: federal reserve, FederalReserve, inthenews, Senate, Tarp disclosure, TarpDisclosure

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-03-2009 @ 5:43PM

Carol said...

The Fed is not about to name names or give out any list that would tell the American people the truth. Just like AIG won't be handing over the list of bonus takers because Obama's and Dodd's names are on the list and probably half of the Congress. All Obama is doing is duping this country for all its worth and padding his pocket as fast as he can along with Geithner, his pet with the checkbook. Obama is a crook, smooth talking perhaps but nonetheless a scam artist.