http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEfuO342uoj8
This is an attempt at a future CYA. Sub prime is over, alt A's and option arms resets have only just begun.
There will be a need for future banking bailouts. If the banks that are named, handed out enormous bonuses this year and then hit up the treasury for further help, all hell would break loose. The FED is trying to ensure that doesn't happen, by making sure the American public is kept in the dark.
The Federal Reserve asked a U.S. appeals court to block a ruling that for the first time would force the central bank to reveal secret identities of financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest government bailout in U.S. history.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan will decide whether the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. In August, a federal judge ordered that the information be released, responding to a request by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.
“This case is about the identity of the borrower,” said Matthew Collette, a lawyer for the government, in oral arguments today. “This is the equivalent of saying ‘I want all the loan applications that were submitted.’”
Bloomberg argues that the public has the right to know basic information about the “unprecedented and highly controversial use” of public money
