If you have not done so, read MATT TAIBBI’S excellent piece in Rolling Stone on the political implications of the bailout:
Taibbi has done a very thorough job of research on this piece. For example, he illustrates some of the bizzare legal protections given the Fed over the years, protections that make the central bank immune from congressional oversight:
“None other than disgraced senator Ted Stevens was the poor sap who made the unpleasant discovery that if Congress didn’t like the Fed handing trillions of dollars to banks without any oversight, Congress could apparently go fuck itself — or so said the law. When Stevens asked the GAO about what authority Congress has to monitor the Fed, he got back a letter citing an obscure statute that nobody had ever heard of before: the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950. The relevant section, 31 USC 714(b), dictated that congressional audits of the Federal Reserve may not include “deliberations, decisions and actions on monetary policy matters.” The exemption, as Foss notes, “basically includes everything.” According to the law, in other words, the Fed simply cannot be audited by Congress. Or by anyone else, for that matter.”
Article provides excellent overview of AIG scandal and political angles.
BTW, I am hearing that Rahm Emanuel is bought and sold by Goldman Sachs. More confirmation that we need to change the caption on the money to read “In Goldman Sachs We Trust,” a la Galbraith, of course.
— Chris
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Source:
The Big Takeover
MATT TAIBBI
Rolling Stone, Mar 19, 2009 12:49 PM
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover
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