106 SOURCES: Jeremy Kees, Ph.D., M.B.A., assistant professor, marketing, Villanova University, Villanova, Pa.; David Hammond, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of health studies, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Stanton Glantz, Ph.D., professor, medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Fed thinks disclosure is a bad idea
The Federal Reserve Board is trying to head off a court order to reveal, by the end of the month, which banks accepted trillions of dollars worth of emergency loans from the Fed to stay afloat. John Dimsdale reports Tess Vigeland: The Federal Reserve Board is trying to head off a court order to reveal which banks accepted emergency loans. Earlier this week, a U.S. District Judge granted a Freedom of Information Act request by Bloomberg News. John Dimsdale reports the Fed, and the banks, think disclosure is a bad idea.
JOHN DIMSDALE: Banks say that going public would undermine their credibility, scaring away customers and investors and causing more bank failures. The Fed also supports keeping the list of banks secret. Villanova business school professor Victor Li suspects it's a question of timing. VICTOR LI: We're at the point where the economy is beginning to show signs of stabilization and perhaps the Fed doesn't want to introduce additional elements of instability or at least unpredictability. If the courts back off, Congress might require disclosure anyway. The Senate has approved an amendment that would force the Fed to reveal the banks. Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders sponsored the provision. BERNIE SANDERS: It is simply insane that you have an institution, the Fed, that is lending out trillions of taxpayer dollars, at zero interest rates, and then when asked, they refuse to tell us who has received this money.
Villanova School of Business 2009 Media Report