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Transparency and accountability are good things ... except for me

From the LA Times:

Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration this week will propose the most significant new regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, including a new watchdog agency to look out for consumers' interests.

Under the plan, expected to be released Wednesday, the government would have new powers to seize key companies -- such as insurance giant American International Group Inc. -- whose failure jeopardizes the financial system. Currently, the government's authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks....

In addition, the administration wants to impose regulation over the market for derivatives -- the murky financial contracts used to hedge risky investments -- including new reporting and disclosure requirements. Institutions that originate loans would be required to retain 5% of the credit risk when the loans are turned into securities.


From MSNBC:

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.


I will leave you to connect the dots.
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tom said…
The Federal Reserve doesn't seem to be too fond of transparency and accountability either. Ron Paul's bill calling for an audit has them so scared that they have hired a lobbyist to oppose it!

The good news is that with 232 co-sponsors as of today, H.R.1207's passage in the House is virtually guaranteed.

Unfortunately the Senate version S.604 only has three sponsors so far. It's time to start reminding our Senators that they represent the interests of the States, not the Federal Reserve Banks, and that their constituents are being looted & pillaged by the Fed's irresponsible expansion of the money supply.
June 18, 2009 at 1:55 AM
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