sharingwisdom
03-29-2010, 12:54 AM
Fed Loses Secrecy Suit, Considering Options (https://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/sectors-mainmenu-46/3169-fed-loses-secrecy-suit-considering-options)
The Federal Reserve lost an appeal March 19 in a bid to keep hidden the details of its estimated $2 trillion in bailouts to bankers around the world, prompting celebration among anti-Fed campaigners and promises of a continued fight from the banking cartel.
A lower court ruled in August last year that the central bank must release the information under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Bloomberg media empire. But the Fed refused. Bloomberg had argued that the public had a right to know what was going on since U.S. taxpayers were “involuntary investors.”
“When an unprecedented amount of taxpayer dollars were lent to financial institutions in unprecedented ways and the Federal Reserve refused to make public any of the details of its extraordinary lending, Bloomberg News asked the court why U.S. citizens don’t have the right to know,” said Bloomberg editor-in-chief Mathew Winkler after the lower court’s ruling. “We’re gratified the court is defending the public’s right to know what is being done in the public interest.”
But the Fed fought back, demanding a stay of the lower-court order until an appeals court could take up the case. It argued that disclosing the documents could “damage” the rescued firms and that a FOIA exemption for “trade secrets” was applicable to the bailouts....
In a supplementary brief filed by the Fed Board of Governors, the cartel also argued that since the New York Federal Reserve Board was basically a private institution, it was not obligated to comply with FOIA requests. “The FRBNY is not an establishment of the executive branch because it is a corporation whose stock is privately held,” explained the brief, also noting that it “is overseen by a board of directors the majority of whom are privately appointed” and that “none of the stock of the FRBNY is government-owned.”
After losing again on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a Fed spokesman said the cartel was reviewing the decision and considering its options for reconsideration or yet another appeal. Some analysts have suggested that the central bank could be preparing to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court to maintain its secrets — and considering the fact that it has virtually unlimited financial resources, it does not have anything to lose by doing so.
But legislators have become increasingly frustrated with the Fed. “This money does not belong to the Federal Reserve. It belongs to the American people, and the American people have a right to know where more than $2 trillion of their money has gone,” said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in a statement, adding that the appeals court’s decision was a “major victory” for American taxpayers.
A significant majority in Congress has also signed on to a wildly popular proposal by Representative Ron Paul to “ Audit the Fed. And though the effort is encountering fierce resistance from the central bank, it already passed as an amendment in the House of Representatives. It also has support from over three-fourths of Americans, according to polls...
The Federal Reserve lost an appeal March 19 in a bid to keep hidden the details of its estimated $2 trillion in bailouts to bankers around the world, prompting celebration among anti-Fed campaigners and promises of a continued fight from the banking cartel.
A lower court ruled in August last year that the central bank must release the information under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Bloomberg media empire. But the Fed refused. Bloomberg had argued that the public had a right to know what was going on since U.S. taxpayers were “involuntary investors.”
“When an unprecedented amount of taxpayer dollars were lent to financial institutions in unprecedented ways and the Federal Reserve refused to make public any of the details of its extraordinary lending, Bloomberg News asked the court why U.S. citizens don’t have the right to know,” said Bloomberg editor-in-chief Mathew Winkler after the lower court’s ruling. “We’re gratified the court is defending the public’s right to know what is being done in the public interest.”
But the Fed fought back, demanding a stay of the lower-court order until an appeals court could take up the case. It argued that disclosing the documents could “damage” the rescued firms and that a FOIA exemption for “trade secrets” was applicable to the bailouts....
In a supplementary brief filed by the Fed Board of Governors, the cartel also argued that since the New York Federal Reserve Board was basically a private institution, it was not obligated to comply with FOIA requests. “The FRBNY is not an establishment of the executive branch because it is a corporation whose stock is privately held,” explained the brief, also noting that it “is overseen by a board of directors the majority of whom are privately appointed” and that “none of the stock of the FRBNY is government-owned.”
After losing again on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a Fed spokesman said the cartel was reviewing the decision and considering its options for reconsideration or yet another appeal. Some analysts have suggested that the central bank could be preparing to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court to maintain its secrets — and considering the fact that it has virtually unlimited financial resources, it does not have anything to lose by doing so.
But legislators have become increasingly frustrated with the Fed. “This money does not belong to the Federal Reserve. It belongs to the American people, and the American people have a right to know where more than $2 trillion of their money has gone,” said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in a statement, adding that the appeals court’s decision was a “major victory” for American taxpayers.
A significant majority in Congress has also signed on to a wildly popular proposal by Representative Ron Paul to “ Audit the Fed. And though the effort is encountering fierce resistance from the central bank, it already passed as an amendment in the House of Representatives. It also has support from over three-fourths of Americans, according to polls...