Posted on 11/13/2008 8:47:18 AM PST by uncommonsense
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.
The Fed's lending is significant because the central bank has stepped into a rescue role that was also the purpose of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailout plan - without safeguards put into the TARP legislation by Congress.
Total Fed lending topped $2 trillion for the first time last week and has risen by 140 percent, or $1.172 trillion, in the seven weeks since Fed governors relaxed the collateral standards on Sept. 14.
Paulson called for transparency in the purchase of distressed assets under the TARP program. "We need oversight," Paulson told lawmakers. "We need protection. We need transparency." Bernanke also stressed the importance of openness in the program. "Transparency is a big issue," he said.
In an interview Nov. 6, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said the Fed's disclosure is sufficient and that the risk the central bank is taking on is appropriate in the current economic climate.
"I talked to Geithner and he was pretty sure that they're OK," said Frank. "If the risk is that the Fed takes a little bit of a haircut, well that's regrettable."
Frank said the Fed shouldn't reveal the assets it holds or how it values them because of "delicacy with respect to pricing." He said such disclosure would "give people clues to what your pricing is and what they might be able to sell us and what your estimates are." He wouldn't say why he thought that information would be problematic.
"I'd love to hear the methodology, how the Fed priced the assets," D'Vari said. "That would unclog the market very quickly."
(Excerpt) Read more at forums.military.com ...
*applause*
*applause*
Hold on....Mr. Zero is looking out for you.
The Federal Reserve System, including regional banks, the FOMC, and the Board of Governors, is a nebulous institution that spans both the public and private sectors. It's my understanding that the regional banks (such as FRB New York) are completely private and owned by member banks (such as JPM Chase, Citi, et al.) while the Board of Governors and the FOMC are...public entities? FOIA would thus apply to the public sector portions of the Fed.
I wonder if the confusion is deliberate.
It's festival time in India, and Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest IT software and services provider, is celebrating with gusto. After months of speculation, TCS acquired Citigroup's (C) India-based outsourcing unit, Citigroup Global Services, for $505 million in an all-cash deal announced on Oct. 8. That's the largest-ever purchase for TCS. What's more, the company bagged a $2.5 billion contract to provide process outsourcing services, application development, and infrastructure support to Citigroup and its affiliates over nine-and-a-half years. "This transaction will complement our domain expertise and bring new capabilities to TCS that will help drive growth," says S. Ramadorai, chief executive officer of TCS.
... more at the link ...
It's festival time in India, and Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest IT software and services provider, is celebrating with gusto. After months of speculation, TCS acquired Citigroup's (C) India-based outsourcing unit, Citigroup Global Services, for $505 million in an all-cash deal announced on Oct. 8. That's the largest-ever purchase for TCS. What's more, the company bagged a $2.5 billion contract to provide process outsourcing services, application development, and infrastructure support to Citigroup and its affiliates over nine-and-a-half years. "This transaction will complement our domain expertise and bring new capabilities to TCS that will help drive growth," says S. Ramadorai, chief executive officer of TCS.
... more at the link ...
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