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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Fed Plays Cute
http://www.thenation.com/blog/167432/fed-plays-cuteThe august Federal Reserve is not given to slapstick humor, but sometimes it cant resist. Dylan Ratigan, the spirited talker from MSNBC, and the Huffington Post joined forces to assault the traditional secrecy of the central bank. Months ago, they filed a freedom of information request, asking the Fed to make available the meeting minutes of Fed decision makers from 2007 to 2010. Those were the critical years of financial collapse and massive bailouts when the Fed dispensed trillions of dollars to comfort the panicky financial system and prop up insolvent banks.
At this late date, the request seems reasonable. After all, the banking crisis is long overor so they sayand by now the public ought to be able to examine how and why the Fed governors decided to launch their extravagant rescue of Wall Street. Normally, the Fed keeps the records of these official deliberations secret for five years before releasing them. But the last five years were not normal. They remain the source of popular anger and political upheaval.
Months passed. Finally, a big package was delivered to the two media outlets513 pages of verbatim discussions by the Federal Open Market Committee, the decision makers who set monetary policy and authorize the big-ticket loans and guarantees for troubled financial institutions. Imagine the high drama those pages would reveal.
Good morning, everybody, Chairman Ben Bernanke announced. The page went blank, actually gray. The only words that appeared were the names of the numerous participants, followed by page after page of empty gray space. At the bottom each page it said in bold type Authorized for Public Release. Then Bernanke spoke again. So weve had a motion without objection. Okay, then the swap lines are approved. Lets turn now to the economic situation. Etc., etc. More empty gray pagesroughly 500 of them.
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The Fed Plays Cute (Original Post)
xchrom
Apr 2012
OP
leveymg
(36,418 posts)1. By what legal authority can the Fed censor its own public releases?
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. good question. i don't know. nt
Jello Biafra
(439 posts)3. Here's the story from MSNBC
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)4. Oh, you proles!
Always wanting to know about a bunch of stuff that you really won't understand and that you'll just pick apart to make fun of your betters. Everything's all better now, so just get out your credit cards and get to buying stuff again, cancha?