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What 'Oversight' Means in Washington
Since last September, the Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by more than $1 trillion, and has engaged in even much larger amounts of off-balance-sheet transactions. In January of this year, freshman Rep. Alan Grayson repeatedly asked Federal Reserve Vice chairman Donald Kohn the identity of the companies which had received those loans, only to be told that the Fed had no obligation and no desire to disclose that information to Congress. That obviously leads to the question of who exerts oversight over the Fed and the vast amounts of money it transfers.
One answer -- the only real answer -- is that the Fed's activities are monitored by an Inspector General, which ostensibly "conducts independent and objective audits, inspections, evaluations, investigations, and other reviews related to programs and operations of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board)" and "promote[s] integrity, economy, efficiency, and effectiveness; help prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse; and strengthen accountability to the Congress and the public." At minimum, then, one would assume that the Fed's Inspector General is actively monitoring the extraordinary actions in which the Fed has been engaging since September. After all, nobody else is monitoring or even can monitor any of that, since the Fed will not tell anyone what it is doing.
Yesterday, the Fed's Inspector General, Elizabeth Coleman, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee and was questioned by Rep. Grayson about her office's oversight duties. Just watch this five-minute question-and-answer session to get a sense for the true breadth of decay and corruption in our political and financial classes and for what a sorry joke the concept of "oversight" is in Washington:
As the Democrats' second-most-senior Senator, Dick Durbin, said about Congress, though it applies every bit as much to Washington generally: "the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place."
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17 Comments so far
Show AllSounds great to me. She won`t do us any harm as she is not doing anything and is apparently not thinking about anything either. I am going to try to hire her to run my business as she won`t do anything wrong. (or right)
like blagoavich - or is it sonofabitch - says: i gotta get paid for that
thats the extent of the oversight
Sioux Rose
Dave: Can I "hire" you to write a rebuttal to a woman who emailed me today attacking me for being "one of those Green/Nader supporters," and why don't I realize this disunifies the Democratic party. She furthered that there were so many differences between the Democrats and Republicans. To her, it's a mindset. I don't have the patience to argue policy by policy that there are few if any genuine differences, not in their style of governance, but in the ultimate product. I suspect her "news" comes from CNN. People like her think they are well-informed, and shy away from "radical" websites like C.D where they'd get a far more diversified sampling of what falls under the heading of news.
Rep. Grayson is a freshman and doesn't yet understand how things work in Washington.
Rep. Grayson is a freshman and doesn't yet understand how things work in Washington.
How can we replace some of these bozos in Congress? Where can we start?
Mark Twain said: "Suppose you were an idiot. Suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
It is now much worse... they are not idiots but venal frauds, selling away any remnants of democracy, issue by issue, vote by vote.
Joe
Why do you people think these people raise millions for a seat in Congress? In their view it's just business as usual. Lying, cheating, stealing , colluding to all the above. Yes, even a few come to do good and in the by and by they do pretty well. ( for their clients and themselves that is.)
First, get rid of the stupidity that says that corporations are the same as real humans. Take away their rights to buy politicians.
Secondly, institute a policy of ONLY publicly financed elections. Of ALL positions. ANY private money, even if it comes from the candidate themselves, results in jail time of BOTH parties, the giver and the receiver.
Thirdly, do NOT allow ANY gifts of any kind to be given to elected officials. No free lunches, no trips, no free travel on private jets, no NOTHING. Any violation results in jail time.
These three steps would open up the congress of both houses to REAL humans that could make decisions according to what is best for ALL the people, not just what is good for big business.
Until we get rid of the graft for whoever can afford it, whore yourself out for an elected seat system that we currently have, nothing else will change, and nothing else will do anything but make even more money for the already too damned wealthy. No nationalized health care, no end to for profit prison systems, no reform of employment conditions, no NOTHING. As long as all we have in congress are paid whores, you can only count on more of the same. To expect anything else would be foolish.
Why do we not hear about oversight of the military? It seems to me the most logical place to start as it is given the lions share of our tax dollars to support the oligarchy. Oh, I forgot, it is off the table!
So, the Fed has disappeared something between two trillion and nine trillion dollars into the American financial system and the financial system is still not functioning to lend money so the economy can start to function again. The banks that drove the economy off the cliff still can’t pass the “stress test” and supposedly some of the two to nine trillion “spirit dollars” went to patch-up the vary porous balance sheets of these banks.
As this is going on the Federal Government is also running unprecedented deficits. The “spirit dollars” being pumped into the money supply will create very strong inflationary pressure, especially in energy, imported goods and health care. While sectors of the economy that depend on consumers obtaining loans like housing and the automotive sector will continue to contract.
State and local governments (where governmental spending has the largest “multiplier effect”) are slashing spending as their tax revenue plummets so they are slashing services causing more economic contraction at the time those services are most needed. Companies that can’t obtain loans because banks still aren’t in a position to create new loans are cutting back causing even more economic contraction.
The combination of rapid inflation during a time of falling economic activity is the worst possible combination for the vast majority of America’s workers.
The recent 30% rally in the stock markets was largely due to some accounting rule voodoo that allows the banksters to gaze into a crystal ball and value the toxic assets on their books at an artificial value the banksters think the assets will be worth at some unspecified point in the future. There is also a very good possibility that this rally is a classic “sucker’s rally” rather than a leading economic indicator pointing toward an economic recovery in the near future.
It’s my humble opinion that the current economic crisis is far from over and that we are nowhere near the bottom.
Sioux Rose
MADHOOSIER: I agree with all your points, however, it seems that perception management has become a high art. A lot of people still think Saddam Hussein was responsible for 911, and that we are making progress in Iraq. A lot of people think Obama is really changing policies away from the disasters that Bush left in his wake. My point is that while many will see homes foreclosed and persons jobless, they may be CONVINCED this is all fringe stuff, and that essentially "the economy is sound." If you can convince a substantial percentage of a nation's persons of a false rationale for war, and if a large percentage believes in things like End Times, then those orchestrating policy may think like skillful attorneys. They have no interest in speaking to those with intellects and eyes to see, they will aim their false case(s) at those who can be manipulated while all the dazzling tools of manipulation (MSM) are quite literally at their disposal. Many are already in a semi schizophrenic state as there is a disconnect between the ostensible signs of societal breakdown and their hearing something entirely else from many media pundits. How can the Truth set them free when they have been fed a diet of bull shit for so long?
Yes, perception management is the new high art. While those who are not directly affected by the crashing economy may well think everything is OK I doubt that those who’ve seen the value of their investments, houses and retirement plans tank will take the “everything’s OK" bait. Those lining up at the unemployment office will be an even harder sell.
With the moratorium on housing foreclosures over there is another wave of repossessed housing set to hit the market in a few weeks that will knock the value of residential real estate down another 10% to 15% or more. (There are those who suggest that if all the real estate that’s been foreclosed were on the market (the banks are holding some instead of selling them) the supply of housing would be quite a bit higher than it currently is) I would not be surprised to see stocks tank again at about the same time, especially if the banks that did not pass the (not very stressful) “stress test” have trouble raising assets and Uncle Sugar has to bail them out again.
To use a more local economic indicator, a generation ago the rule of thumb for buying and selling tickets to the Indianapolis 500 was “buy at twice (face value) and sell at thrice” with tickets with poor views of the track selling for less and especially desirable tickets (Stand E) selling for more than three times face value.
I looked at e-bay today and lots of Indy tickets at less than face value are not getting any bids and those selling are selling way below face value.
There have also been lots of vacant seats at the NASCAR races this spring.
This is from nj.com
“NEW YORK -- The price of New York Yankees tickets on the resale market plummeted this week following the team's decision to give free extra seats to people who bought the team's priciest season plans.
Legends Suite seats for Friday night's game against the Los Angeles Angels that originally sold for $500 could be had for $144 shortly before 5 p.m. on StubHub.com. Legends seats in section 16, row 9, behind the first-base dugout were available for $199, down from their $850 original price.
All the sharp discounting wasn't just among the Legends seats, which include access to three restaurants and lounges with free food and soft drinks. Field level seats to the plate side of the first-base dugout could be had for $50, down from their $325 price as part of season tickets.
"We're seeing an unprecedented number of season-ticket holders selling. The market has been flooded. It is a buyer's market for baseball fans," said Mike Janes, chief executive officer of FanSnap.com, an Internet search engine that finds tickets on resale sites.”
http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2009/05/price_of_new_york_yankees_tick.html
If you're farsighted you can see in the distance but not up close.
If you're nearsighted you can see up close but not in the distance.
If you're oversighted you can see through the walls of banks and locate where the money is. You can see the lock's combination. You call Geithner or Obysmal, give them that information and they'll dispatch a couple of bagmen from Treasury to go get the money for you.
Re Mordechai Shiblikov May 7th, 2009 2:56 pm
Spoken like a true visionary.
CQ from Maine
I'm with WJM. Join the just6dollars campaign on . Public financing of all federal house, senate and presidential races.
That poor woman couldn't inspect her shirt to see if her buttons were buttoned! Makes you want to say: What the f**k!
Our only hope is that Obama is trying this stuff to prove it doesn't work and he already knows it and then when everyone says: Hey this ain't working he's gonna whip out his progressive agenda and heads will roll. Maybe he's waiting for Al Franken. Or Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Maybe not. Maybe we're screwed.
People who wish to control their own government should keep their money out of banks that lobby.
No bank has a "WE LOBBY" sign on the door, but there are smaller groups -- credit unions and the like.