U.S. Senate Confirms Ben Bernanke for a 2nd Term as Fed Governor

By GottaLaff

Via a million e-mail alerts, but here's the one from the N.Y. Times:

The Senate confirmed Ben S. Bernanke to a second term at the
helm of the Federal Reserve. The confirmation was a victory
for President Obama, who had called Mr. Bernanke a critical
leader in the nation's recovery from recession, but the
rancor surrounding the vote also signaled the extent to which
the Fed, once little known to the public, has become the
object of populist anger over high unemployment and bank
bailouts.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na

Fed holds rates at record low to fuel recovery

By GottaLaff

Via an alert I just got:

The Federal Reserve has decided to hold interest rates at a record low and pledged to keep them there for an "extended period" to keep the recovery going and drive down double-digit unemployment.

But in a more upbeat assessment, the Fed says the economy has "continued to pick up" and that "deterioration in the labor market is abating," a nod to the recent slowdown in the pace of layoffs.

Much more here.

Video- Rep. Alan Grayson on Auditing the Fed

This could be very interesting.

Fed Signals Vote of Confidence in Economy

I'll take it.

(CBS/ AP) The Federal Reserve delivered a vote of confidence in the recovery on Wednesday, declaring that U.S. economic activity is "leveling out." The central bank also signaled that it would end one of its programs aimed at propping up the economy, and kept a key lending rate at a record low.

The Fed said it would gradually slow the pace of its program to buy $300 billion worth of Treasury securities so that it will shut down at the end of October, versus September. It has bought $253 billion of the securities so far.

The program is aimed at lowering rates on mortgages and other consumer debt, a move to spur Americans to spend more. But its effectiveness has been questioned by some on Wall Street and on Capitol Hill who worry that the program makes it look like the Fed is printing money to pay for Uncle Sam's exploding deficits.

With the economy on the mend, the Fed held a key banking lending rate at a record low near zero and again pledged to keep it there for "an extended period."

Do-over: Fed Moves to Overhaul Credit Card Regulations

By GottaLaff

From the Department of Better Late Than Never:

The Federal Reserve on Thursday will vote on sweeping reform of the credit card industry that would ban practices such as retroactively increasing interest rates at will and charging late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make payments."

We owe you a debt of thanks.

Fed sued for hiding loan details

By GottaLaff


The so-called bailout is making a lot of people's heads spin. Rachel Maddow needs talking down. America needs talking down. And Michael Bloomberg is demanding transparency:

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.[...]

Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.

The Fed made the loans under terms of 11 programs, eight of them created in the past 15 months, in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. [...]

The Fed's lending is significant because the central bank has stepped into a rescue role that was also the purpose of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailout plan -- without safeguards put into the TARP legislation by Congress.[...]

TARP's $700 billion so far is being used to buy preferred shares in banks to shore up their capital. The program was originally intended to hold banks' troubled assets while markets were frozen.

The Bloomberg lawsuit argues that the collateral lists "are central to understanding and assessing the government's response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression.'' [...]

The Bloomberg lawsuit is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).