What Did They Do With Our Money?

We're entering the final innings of the debate over financial reform. There are many important issues still up in the air including whether the law will do anything to break up the big banks and prevent them from engaging in risky trading. Remarkably, the place where the Obama administration has chosen to devote its energy is protecting secrecy at the Federal Reserve Board. Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed an amendment on auditing the Fed, which would allow the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit the special lending facilities that it created during the crisis. This measure would allow GAO to find out who benefited from the more than $2 trillion lent out at the peak of the financial crisis and under what terms. It would make this information available to the relevant Congressional Committees, which would then decide whether disclose it to the public. (Bloomberg News Service won a case in a federal district court that the public already has a right to this information. The case is being appealed.) The Sanders amendment is similar in its wording to the audit language that was overwhelmingly approved by the House.