A Victory for the People!

Submitted by Mary Bottari on

Victory signToday a right-left coalition scored a victory for the American people when Senators voted 96-0 to audit the Federal Reserve.

The Center for Media and Democracy’s Wall Street Bailout Tally shows that since 2008, the U.S. government has flooded Wall Street banks and financial institutions with $4.7 trillion dollars in taxpayer money, mostly in the form of loans from the Federal Reserve. The Fed has never told us which firms got these loans and what type of collateral American taxpayers got in return. This will now be revealed. We will also get an accounting of the Fed’s “stealth” bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It is important to note that in November 2008, Bloomberg News submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the most basic of bailout information, but the Fed stalled forcing Bloomberg into court. Two sets of judges have ordered the Fed to turn over the information, but the Fed keeps stonewalling, appealing the case again last week. The Senate bill now forces the Fed to turn over this critical information. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont pulled together a right-left coalition that got the job done.

Even though the Senators were not able to garner enough support to secure a regulator annual audit as they had hoped, their measure broke through the Fed’s stonewall and will reveal important “Secrets of the Temple.”

But More Needs to be Done! Defend Lincoln Language

Late in the game, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, demanded that provisions be put into the bill that would force the biggest banks to spin off their swaps (or derivatives) desks into a separate entity. That entity can remain part of the bank holding company, but it no longer has access to the Federal Reserve's flow of funds, FDIC insurance and the taxpayer guarantee.

In one fell swoop, her measure effectively forces banks to spin off their destructive gambling arms, protects the taxpayers and downsizes the behemoth banks. What's not to love? The howls from Wall Street could be heard in Wisconsin. Senator Judd Gregg is offering an amendment to strip this language from the bill, and Senator Chambliss will offer other weakening amendments. If you have a chance, tell your Senators to support Lincoln and defeat weakening amendments, the Senate switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

Support Merkley-Levin, a Ban on Conflict-of-Interest Trading

Also ask your Senators where they stand on the “Merkley-Levin Amendment,” cosponsored by Senators Jeff Merkley and Carl Levin. This amendment would stop banks from engaging in Goldman-Sachs-style bets against their own clients. Reining in this practice, called “proprietary trading,” would significantly strengthen the financial reform bill. Other great amendments are in the works if Senator Reid will leave enough time for meaningful debate, including Senator Dorgan's measure to ban "naked" credit default swaps, the worst "weapons of economic destruction." Tell the Senate to "Break Up the Banks" at BanksterUSA.org, if you have not yet had a chance to contact your Senator.

Mary Bottari
Mary Bottari

Mary Bottari is a reporter for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). She helped launch CMD's award-winning ALEC Exposed investigation and is a two-time recipient of the Sidney Prize for public interest journalism from the Sidney Hillman Foundation.

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Comments

M. Btok replied on

This is great news, and I congratulate all who worked so hard to get it! Make sure you get a complete extreme comprehensive deep Audit done by the most trustworthy, best professional auditors and Chartered Accountants that can be found! Look for solid, good reason, to end the Fed and further expand on the availability of Audit and correction for the benefit of the American citizens! Once again congratulations, and here's to Ron Paul for President 2012! Bring in as many candidates, with Ron Paul style Constitutionalists and honest Constitutionalists , that you can find, to run for office right accross America! Make sure no candidates are Elitist members, re: CFR, Bilderberger, Trilateral Commission, Club of Rome, Goldman Sachs etc. We need to have many candidates in the wings as we know, the Mafia Elitists will attempt to stop us from taking back our country and making it a Just country, once again! There are no true Americans' that want a "One World Government", in the USA! No citizen in the world that is sane, should desire such a catastrophe either!

Anonymous replied on

The nation-state is an obsolete concept in today's global society, and it allows some people to suffer under terrible local laws and mismanagement/manipulation of local currencies. If we only had one currency, currency speculation would be impossible. I can't argue that it could be abused, but a one-world government is the only way to enforce little things like human rights and labor laws, so I can't quite dismiss it out of hand. That said, this audit will likely cause a global depression as everybody realizes exactly how much of their money was stolen by the super-wealthy elites. Let's hope we can all do something about it.

Paul Peloquin replied on

The original proposal to have independent audits of the Fed was voted down. The vote that passed which PR Watch reported on was a limited one time audit. That vote gave our representatives cover that they are fighting for us--bull! The banks are winning as witnessed by the vote against the Kaufman-Brown amendment to break up the "to big too fail banks."

Lisa Graves replied on

Dear Paul: We were pushing for full audits of the fed and much, much more. We decided to praise this breakthrough even though it was not as strong as we hoped, to gain a toe hold for additional oversight and watch-dogging of the unaccountable Fed. Lisa