Revealing Fed's Secrets Fails to Produce Harm That Banks Cited

[geckosfeet]

So. It looks like this particular deceit is now shown for what it is.

Read more:Revealing Fed's Secrets Fails to Produce Harm That Banks Cited

But this really burns me up. The banks want to operate in secret. I suppose I can understand businesses having certain proprietary information - but when the public has to prop them up the public deserves to know what is going on. I mean, we have to vote for officials who will to some extent, guide public bank policy (tongue in cheek).

But I suppose what galls me the most is the hypocrisy. For those of us who have money in these banking institutions, our most intimate financial details are known to them. By wanting to keep information about their financial stability hidden, the banks attempt to protect themselves and sacrifices us, their customers. The good thing is that this certainly helps to clarify who is number one on the FEDS priority list.

"Disclosure of this information threatens to harm the borrowing banks by allowing the public to observe their borrowing patterns during the recent financial crisis and draw inferences -- whether justified or not -- about their current financial conditions," the Clearing House said in its petition. The group's members include Bank of America NA, Citibank NA, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA and Wells Fargo Bank NA.

In other words, we want to deprive our customers of the information they need to make good decisions about how to handle their money.

The harm "is not simply a theoretical possibility," the Fed said as it argued against disclosure in a lawsuit brought by Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. Its brief said a stigma attached to borrowing from the lender of last resort might mean possible depositor runs, drops in a borrowers' stock prices and "in extreme cases, closure of the institution."

"If people saw the data the day after the loans were made they might come to the conclusion that the bank must be in trouble, but two years later it means a significant gain in public information," said Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who sponsored a financial regulatory reform law that bears his name.

...but we are good throwing millions of "consumer's" under the bus by depriving them of information that is critical to their personal finances.


And, just in case you weren't sure how badly that we are getting it from both ends - there is this little tidbit.

The 29,000 pages of documents, which the Fed released in pdf format on a CD-ROM, revealed that foreign banks accounted for at least 70 percent of the Fed’s lending at its October, 2008 peak of $110.7 billion. Arab Banking Corp., a lender part- owned by the Central Bank of Libya, used a New York branch to get 73 loans from the window in the 18 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.

Bankers simply have no moral authority. They will play every side against every side in order to squeeze another penny out of the deal. The Almighty dollar is indeed their god.

Read more: Revealing Fed's Secrets Fails to Produce Harm That Banks Cited

Gotta run DU - have a good day.

[xchrom]

1. recommend -- now can the public actually digest -- comprehend -- the information? nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. "Most of YOUR taxes ( bailout funds) went to foreign countries"

Yeah, tell most people the above, they will get it.

Unfortunately, most people would never hear the news about this,given the state of the most popular media.

[msongs]

4. and the state of the policiticians who created bailouts without telling the truth about banks nt

[grahamhgreen]

2. Kick.

[gratuitous]

5. Disclosure is certainly going to be harmful to someone

But not exactly for the reasons proffered.