"...and even lent billions of dollars to a bank partially owned by the Bank of Libya."
PAUL: Time to end Federal Reserve secrecy
Central bankers don’t want us to know what happened during 2008 bailouts
By Rep. Ron Paul
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The Washington Times
7:39 p.m., Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Among the facts that the Federal Reserve would rather you didn’t know is that at the height of the financial turmoil in 2008, when average Americans were just beginning to suffer, the institution was passing out sweetheart deals to protect the powerful and well-connected. Among the beneficiaries were foreign banks, Wall Street giants and even the company that then owned MSNBC.
Recently, my House subcommittee on domestic monetary policy held a hearing to examine information disclosed by the Federal Reserve about its bailout lending during the 2008 financial crisis - disclosure that was required by the Dodd-Frank Act and the Freedom of Information Act.
These Federal Reserve records, made available to the public on Dec. 1, 2010, and on March 31 provided a look at thousands of transactions and trillions of dollars in lending by the Federal Reserve.
The importance of this hearing cannot be overstated.
The conduct of the Fed and the operations of its lending facilities, especially during the most critical periods of the financial crisis, require intensive oversight and the utmost transparency.
Had it not been for the actions of grass-roots activists intent on holding the Fed accountable, none of this information would have seen the light of day. The Fed not only protested these transparency efforts every step of the way, but also predicted financial disaster if details on the recipients of those funds were released.
Several months after the disclosures, the only disaster is the continuing refusal of the White House and Congress to rein in an out-of-control Fed and exercise effective oversight of its monetary policy.
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We now know that at the peak of the crisis, the Fed was providing nearly 90 percent of its discount window loans to foreign banks and even lent billions of dollars to a bank partially owned by the Bank of Libya.
Full story: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/22/time-to-end-federal-reserve-secrecy/
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