Federal Reserve Refusing To Disclose Who Got Bailout Loans
It’s our tax money being spent on ineptly-run businesses, but we’re not allowed to know which businesses got it.
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg)—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.
The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.
“If they told us what they held, we would know the potential losses that the government may take and that’s what they don’t want us to know,” said Carlos Mendez, a senior managing director at New York-based ICP Capital LLC, which oversees $22 billion in assets.
Trade secrets are all well and good, but when you demand that the taxpayers bail you and/or your business out you open yourself up to public scrutiny.
When the taxpayers’ dollars are involved the taxpayers absolutely have a right to know. It’s ridiculous to suggest that they do not.
