Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Fed Shouldn’t Reveal Crisis Loans, Banks Vow to Tell High Court

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ax8ulGXswn4E

Now I ask myself, what is it that the FED and friends have hidden that will still cause a run on the banks 3 years later, for them to be going to all of this trouble to keep it hidden.
With the outing of repo 105 and the fraudulent accounting methods of Washington Mutual and Lehman, I can't help but thinking what's hidden under the FED's bed is very distasteful and definitely not a socially acceptable practice, and as taxpayers who bailed them all out I believe we have a right to know, exactly what that practice was.


April 14 (Bloomberg) -- The biggest U.S. commercial banks will take their fight against disclosure of Federal Reserve lending in 2008 to the Supreme Court if necessary, the top lawyer for an industry-owned group said.

Continued legal appeals will delay or block the first public look at details of the central bank’s $2 trillion in emergency lending during the 2008 financial crisis. The Clearing House Association LLC, a group that includes Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., joined the Fed in defense of a lawsuit brought by Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, seeking release of records related to four Fed lending programs.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled March 19 that the central bank must release the documents. A three-judge panel of the appellate court rejected the Fed’s argument that disclosure would stigmatize borrowers and discourage banks from seeking emergency help.

“Our member banks are very concerned about real-time disclosure of information that could cause a run on the banks,” said Paul Saltzman, the group’s general counsel, in an interview yesterday. “We’re not going to let the Second Circuit opinion stand without seeking a review.”

Regardless of whether the Fed appeals, the Clearing House will take the next legal step by asking for a review by the full appellate court, Saltzman, 49, said at his office in New York. If the ruling is unfavorable, the bank group will petition the Supreme Court, he said.