Federal Reserve Loses Bloomberg FOIA Lawsuit, Sensitive Disclosures Forthcoming
This was sent in from one of our readers and we have been following this in the past when Bloomberg filed their Freedom of Information Act request last year. This is big and sobering news, I think we will be very surprised when we finally know who and in what amounts, entities got the unprecedented $2 trillion dollars in emergency loans. Here is a link to the actual opinion from the District Court Judge Loretta Presk. I am glad that she saw it correctly that if they are using taxpayer money then is should be public knowledge who gets it and for what. No longer can we allow these bad actors to chase out the good ones. Sunshine must be let in.e
Quote From Site:
This is in relation to a lawsuit filed by Bloomberg LP against the Federal Reserve on November 7, 2008, in Southern District of New York (08-09595), in which Bloomberg sought material loan and collateral data in relation to emergency loans released by the Fed, and which were previously claimed to be non-FOIAble.
This is a large blow against the Fed and specifically against organizations using FOIA loopholes from providing critical information, particularly in cases involving trillions of taxpayer dollars bailing out huge, systematically and politically embedded financial organizations (which lately is pretty much all of them).
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Bloomberg to cut 100 U.S. broadcast jobs
Looks like no one is safe from this crisis. We should continue to see more layoffs as this “soft depression” continues. We run majors risks as we continue to have more and more able and unemployed people. The masses will get restless unless we start addressing the core of the problem, which is the lack of jobs in sustainable areas of the economy which I would emphasize should be production jobs. We need to be able to produce for ourselves at all times no matter what or we are subject to others countries policies which may or may not have our best interest at heart. Real talk.
News:
Bloomberg LP will cut 100 television and radio jobs in the first layoffs since it was founded in 1981 by now-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The news and financial data provider will cut the jobs in the United States, 45 of them from its newsroom staff, spokeswoman Judith Czelusniak said, adding that Bloomberg might cut other jobs in Britain, Europe and Japan.
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Update: Fed refuses to disclose recipients of $2 trillion in emergency loans
Interesting that the Federal Reserve said that it was a trade secret on who got that money. Here is the following definition of “Trade Secret” according to Wiki :
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers. I am not sure if our tax dollars should be loaned to anyone as a secret through an semi-private organization that has the backing of our governement. I believe what they do not want us to know is that we have sent money to bail out foreign speculators.
News:
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.
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Congressmen Boehner demands Federal Reserve identify recipients of loans
Looks like this is picking up steam and will make for an interesting response from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke. This also comes on heels of the current Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson stating that they are going to shift gears in the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) program to take the remaining funds to inject liquidity into student loans, consumer credit cards and auto loans. Right off the back, I support giving money to the college loan market.
The rest is just wrong, why not spend that money on creating jobs that provide a living wage so that people can save for the types of purchases that come with a credit card and auto purchase. The other startling statistic I heard this morning is that 10% of all jobs in the U.S. are connecting with our auto industry. At the end of the day we will prop up our auto industry and the sad fact is they will still make cars most people will not want or afford to buy.
News:
House Republican leader John Boehner is calling for the Federal Reserve to disclose the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers and the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
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Fed refuses to identify recipients of $2 trillion in emergency loans
Well now we are seeing the “true power” of our Federal Reserve Banking System (FRBS). They are going to state the response that we all know is coming when the Bloomberg lawsuit gets to trials that they are in fact not a government agency so they do not need to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA).
mYou most likely don’t want to know where that money went, if you do then you are most likely going to be very upset and feel duped by your officials. This is a bailout of the financial system at large and this will not prevent the havoc on “main street” as they were so pressed to make us believe. They stand ready to issue money without limits just like Greenspan was quoted saying. Good luck.
News:
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.
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Bloomberg sues Federal Reserve to force disclosure of collateral for bailout loans
Kudos to Matt Winkler and the Bloomberg team. Finally it looks like people are starting to come to their sense and with that we have real questions being asked from a top-notch media outlet. Bottom line is that most of these banks in questions gave extremely distressed if not worthless assets in exchange for our treasuries.
I believe their plan was to give them these loans and then hopefully we would start borrowing at the same pace and that would let them dig themselves out of this crater of a hole. Now that we are starting to realize this downturn is going to be severe and we have long-term consequences to deal with, we know that this bailout was really just a lifeline to a bunch of banks that should of failed at this point. I also heard that the Supreme Court might look at this bailouts and see if they are constitutional.
News:
Bloomberg News asked a U.S. court today to force the Federal Reserve to disclose securities the central bank is accepting on behalf of American taxpayers as collateral for $1.5 trillion of loans to banks.
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Citigroup May Pay $100 Million to Settle Auction-Rate Claims
In an update, it looks like Citigroup will be paying a fine to settle the claims that fraudulently sold the bonds to investors. Here is the release from Bloomberg.com.
Release:
The states victimized by the collapse of the auction-rate securities market are negotiating with Citigroup Inc., the biggest underwriter of such debt, to pay as much as $100 million to settle claims it fraudulently sold the bonds to investors, a person familiar with the case said.
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