Senate Passes One-Time Audit of the Fed

[Howard_Roark]

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday voted unanimously to require a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve’s emergency actions during and after the 2008 financial crisis as part of broad legislation overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/business/12regulate.html?src=busln

[Fozz]

This is the watered down shit audit.

[jkr]

B F'n D!

[Matt Collins]

From the article...


It would allow audits by the Government Accountability Office of every item on the Fed’s balance sheet, including all credit facilities and all securities purchase programs, but would allow an exemption for unreleased transcripts and minutes of closed-door meetings. It also would establish a 180-day time lag before details of the Fed’s market actions could be released.

It also included specific language stating that it was not intended to interfere with monetary policy or to involve Congress in decisions regarding monetary policy.

“While it is better than no audit at all, it guts the spirit of a truly meaningful audit of the most crucial transactions of the Fed,” Mr. Paul wrote on his Web site. “In fact, rather than still calling the Sanders Amendment an audit, maybe it should instead be called more of a disclosure at this point.”

“The new language of the Sanders amendment requires a one-time disclosure from the Fed,” Mr. Paul continued. “Basically, their sins of the past would be revealed and Americans would know more about who got bailed out by the Fed and under what terms. This would be good, but it’s not nearly enough.”