As Dow Swings, Obama To Come Out Against Audit the Fed Today

The Dow is swinging wildly–down as much as 980 points within the last hour–largely due to insecurity about the situation in Greece and shaky retail sales. And according to Brad DeLong, who is generally pretty tight with the White House, Obama will come out in opposition to Audit the Fed this afternoon.

At a time when confidence in the markets desperately needs shoring up, the President should be looking to instill confidence in investors by supporting accountability and transparency within the financial system — not acting to shield the banks.'

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Or in the words of Mike Rivero

BINGO! The drop on the DOW was Bernanke's reminder to the White House that the Fed and not DC actually runs the nation.


Time to pull all your money out of the bank, RIGHT NOW!

Fed Documents Reveal Secret Lobbying Effort Against Audit Provisions

The Federal Reserve is secretly engaged in an intense lobbying effort in an attempt to stave off moves to have the Government Accountability Office audit it, internal documents reveal.

The Huffington Post has obtained the documents, which were distributed to Senate offices by a Fed official, whose identity the online news site agreed not to reveal.

“The effort to beat back the audit relies on playing two members of the same caucus — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) — off each other.” writes Ryan Grim.'

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Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows

The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.

Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.

We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system — apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout — deserves further congressional scrutiny.'

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Bankergate: Emails Expose Criminal Financial Dictatorship At Work

Explosive emails released last week could see Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner become embroiled in criminal charges for his role in a cover up that exposes the monumental criminality behind the $182.3 billion bailout of American International Group Inc.

In November and December 2008, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York instructed the bailed out AIG to hide from the public details regarding payments the insurance giant made to banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA.

Using Fed secured taxpayer bailout money, AIG paid several banks 100 percent of the face value of credit-default swaps, as other financial institutions were negotiating deep discounts for the unregulated paper assets that do not have to be backed by cash.

The decision to pay the banks in full may have cost AIG, and therefore taxpayers, at least $13 billion over the odds.'

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Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank

It authorizes Federal Reserve banks to provide as much as $4 trillion in emergency funding the next time Wall Street crashes. So much for “no-more-bailouts” talk. That is more than twice what the Fed pumped into markets this time around. The size of the fund makes the bribes in the Senate’s health-care bill look minuscule.'

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Bernanke and the Corruption of Washington Culture

The Senate Finance Committee overwhelmingly voted to approve Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke for another 4-year term. This is a remarkable event since it is hard to imagine how Bernanke could have performed worse in his last 4-year term. By Bernanke’s own assessment, his policies brought the economy to the brink of another Great Depression. This sort of performance in any other job would get you fired in a second, but for the most important economic policymaker in the country it gets you high praise and another 4-year term.'

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