Federal judge to Federal Reserve: Pull back the curtain!
Posted by: Sean in Central Banking and Monetary Policy, Federal Reserve System, Organized Resistance“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
-The Wizard of Oz.
Yesterday, Judge Loretta A. Preska, who presides over a United States District Court in New York City, ruled in favor of Bloomberg News, and ordered the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to release records identifying details about the Fed’s emergency lending that began in the fall of 2008.
Bloomberg reporters filed their initial complaint on November 7, 2009, over nine months ago, claiming that the Freedom of Information Act required the Fed to make it lending records public. Since that time, the Fed has continued to operate in the shadows, and has refused to comply with requests by congressmen for more openness with regard to its new lending practices and facilities. The docket history of the case can be viewed here.
I called Judge Preska’s office in New York, and one of her staffers was kind enough to provide me with a PDF file of the judge’s ruling. You can download her opinion here.
Chinks are showing in the Fed’s armor. If it does not appeal, it must release over 231 pages of reports within 5 days of this ruling. Freshman U.S. Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL), who is quickly making a name for himself as a leading advocate for Fed transparency, and who has pointedly criticized Ben Bernanke in congressional hearings, hailed the ruling and continued publicly to debunk Bernanake’s argument for Fed “independence”:
“It’s one thing to say that the Federal Reserve is an independent institution. It’s another thing to say that it can keep us all in the dark.”
This is great news for the Audit the Fed movement. If the Fed appeals the ruling, its continued stonewalling will provide excellent fodder for those who might oppose Ben Bernanke’s re-appointment as Fed Chairman, which President Obama announced this morning, from his vacation home in Massachusetts. Let’s hope at least one senator will have the courage to speak out against Bernanke’s actions, and bring this important issue to the attention of the American people.
The case is: Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan), No. 08-9595.