Bernie Sanders' Letter To Bernanke Seeking FED Emails

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• Read the letter in full here...

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Sanders outside links...

• A Glimpse at the Senator Who Fought the Fed - WSJ

• Sanders accuses Fed of conducting 'backdoor bailout' during crisis

• G.E. and JPMorgan Got Lots of Fed Help in '08

• Sanders: Why Fed aid to foreign automakers?

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Fed Emails Sought

WASHINGTON—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has a slew of questions for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in the wake of new emergency-lending data the central bank released last week.

In a letter Monday to Mr. Bernanke, the senator who played a leading role in getting the Fed to unveil the loan data is demanding access to more information—including certain Fed officials' emails and phone logs as well as new details on the securities banks pledged in exchange for cheap loans.

Mr. Sanders asked about potential conflicts of interest between bank executives and Fed officials, and he asked the Fed to explain its rationale for lending to foreign banks.

He also wants to know exactly how much money the Fed lent to millionaires and billionaires during the financial crisis. He specifically asked for information on loans given to businessman H. Wayne Huizenga, billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson, Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell and Christy Mack, the wife of former Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack and dozens of other borrowers.

"The emergency response appears to any objective observer to have been a clear case of socialism for the rich, and rugged free-market capitalism for everyone else," the Vermont Independent wrote. "Much of the information that you have provided on your website raises bigger questions than it answers, and some of the information mandated by the law appears to be missing."

A Federal Reserve spokesman Monday afternoon said the Fed has received the letter and plans to respond to it.

Sen. Sanders, a self-described socialist who tends to vote with Senate Democrats, also wants to know how much money the Fed lent to investment funds located in tax-haven areas such as the Cayman Islands.

In addition, he questioned the "massive levels" of financial aid to foreign governments and banks. "Why did the Federal Reserve bail out the Korea Development Bank, the wholly state-owned bank of South Korea, by purchasing over $2.2 billion of its commercial paper?" he asks Mr. Bernanke in the letter.

On Wednesday the Federal Reserve released data on thousands of transactions during the financial crisis, showing that the central bank made trillions of dollars of loans to a host of companies, including to foreign banks. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., General Electric Co., Verizon Communications Inc. and the European Central Bank were among the big names that came to the Fed for assistance.

Continue reading at the WSJ...

Comments

[DailyBail]

A Glimpse at the Senator Who Fought the Fed

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=59828eee-167b-462d-a950-d464d5cbc1d1

[DailyBail]

Lawmaker accuses Federal Reserve of conducting 'backdoor bailout' during financial crisis

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=50e6dcd9-f0d4-4814-922b-f3a3c4c091f7

[DailyBail]

Editorial: Fed disclosures open way for accountability

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=a988e194-352a-405e-8f80-bc4fb3d5f2f2

[DailyBail]

G.E. and JPMorgan Got Lots of Fed Help in '08

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=0dea917f-eb9d-47c8-a36b-ea92e9d1ca3b

[DailyBail]

Senator: Why Fed aid to foreign automakers?

http://www.freep.com/article/20101207/BUSINESS01/12070329/1320/Senator-Why-Fed-aid-to-foreign-automakers

[john]

http://www.asmainegoes.com/content/first-wind-payback-received-115-million-stimulus-money. just google "first wind bailout money" for more. I note that First Winds' CEO is a former Enron Executive.

[ginger daves]

I am so sad for America, My head spins when I think how we as a country have fallen so low. Our government is owned by the greedy and the rich. They have most of the money in the world and still they want more, it is a nightmare, Do you not worry about your soul. what have you gained if you gain the world and loose you soul?

[DailyBail]

Madoff Trustee Seeks $1 Billion From 7 International Banks

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/madoff-trustee-seeks-1b-f_n_794360.html

[DailyBail]

@ginger...thanks for your honest comment...

@john...nice link...

[josie]

Ginger is right on! Thomas Jefferson is rolling over. The banksters and the coporations growing around and out of our central banking system have funneled the wealth of the USA to an elite few, relatively. Sad end to the once strong middle class. The middle class simply cannot afford/survive the inflation/debasing of our currency and the tax structure. This class is dying before our own eyes and will die. It is inevitable, given what our Republic has morphed into--cronyism.

What remains? That's what Karl Marx wrote about. I know it's not PC to us in the USA, but Marx saw this coming over a century and a half ago. The way to socialism is thru capitalism as wealth becomes concentrated with the few. Russia skipped the capitalism step and failed, obviously. Now Russia's capitalism stage (although I would not include the present-day oligarchy system as capitalism) is in its relative infancy. Next up? USA. Not in my lifetime (I'm 43), but maybe my grandkids. My 75-year-old dad says he does not envy me with what I will have to deal with financially, e.g. ~$500K to raise a child to 18, low to no retrun on investments, etc.

What a shame. Sorry for the rant.

[DailyBail]

josie...i love your rants...cronyism is right..well said...