Kudos to the federal appeals court that just ruled that the Federal Reserve has no right to hide the sordid special handouts it provided to well-connected financial firms. Here’s an excerpt from a report about the decision:
The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.
The Fed had argued that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. A three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument in a unanimous decision.
On a broader note, I’m periodically asked about monetary policy, the Fed, and the financial crisis. I do my best to stay away from the first two topics, largely because my interests are elsewhere (though I did handle the Federal Reserve for the Bush/Quayle transition team, many years in the past). But that does not mean the issues are unimportant. For those that are interested, I recommend two articles, one by George Selgin and the other by Gerald O’Driscoll.
http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_14_04_01_selgin.pdf
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=1314
