What 'Oversight' Means in Washington: Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?

[Better Believe It]

What 'Oversight' Means in Washington
by Glenn Greenwald
May 7, 2009


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)" which "promote 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:

Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXlxBeAvsB8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esalon%2Ecom%2Fopinion%2Fgreenwald%2F2009%2F05%2F07%2Foversight%2Findex%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/07/oversight/index.html

[slipslidingaway]

1. knr - nice to see 134 cosponsors of HR 1207, 124 yesterday...

but we need more Democrats.

[On the Road]

2. Why Do You Attribute This to Corruption?

[notesdev]

13. Maxine Waters has figured this game out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ugpIryLGtI

[Mike 03]

3. If they have oversight it should not be legislative. The whole point of the Fed is its

independence with respect to how monetary policy is established, regardless of political or lobbying concerns.

Otherwise, we might as well let Congress make monetary policy.

[truedelphi]

7. Supposedly the Fed is audited every year.

See my post a few skips below this one.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. oh, here's why she sounds so much like Lorita Doan:

"Prior to joining the Board's staff, she was employed by the Government Accountability Office"
http://www.federalreserve.gov/oig/oig_bio.htm

At 4:26 in the video, notice a guy 2 rows behind her whispers something to the staff who then whispers to Ms. Stupid.

god, that was painful to watch..reminds me of the DOJ and GAO hearings.

good times, good times.

[truedelphi]

6. But hey, she has this going for her:

She also attended the Federal Reserve System’s Trailblazers Leadership Conference. Ms. Coleman is a Certified Information Systems Auditor.


She is certified, dammit! Certified!

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Maybe that is a typo? "certifiable" comes to mind.

[truedelphi]

9. Heh! Heh!

Yeah that word does come to mind.

[truedelphi]

5. ThisTuesday, Bernanke, he was praising the wonderful

"Independent" audits that are done "every year," and that have apparently shown nothing untowards in any time recently.

SO this means that for some reason, when the audits are performed on the Federal Resserve -

1) These auditors are overlooking the connection between Paulson And Goldman Sachs
2) These auditors are overlooking the connection between many of the other players that are appointed by Obama to handle this huge crisis our nation faces
3) These auditors fail to connect the dots that clearly show how AIG is serving as a "Passthrough" whereby Goldman Sachs ends up with great gobs of money.

Stiglitz says it nicely, “America has had a revolving door. People go from Wall Street to Treasury and back to Wall Street,” he said. “Even if there is no quid pro quo, that is not the issue. The issue is the mindset.”

ON EDIT: It is the OIG that conducts the audit. They are the Office of the Inspector General of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Supposedly they are "independent. But keep in mind the Stiglitz quote above.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. It could mean Bernanke is lying thru his teeth or not doing his job, or both.

[truedelphi]

11. That about sums it up. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. ooops...is my growing "bitterness" showing?