Jim Willie of the Hat Trick Letter notes that Bloomberg has filed a lawsuit
against the Federal Reserve to force the Fed to give some details about where
in the hell US$700 billion went after disbursement from the TARP financial
rescue funds, a request and a lawsuit that the Fed is steadfastly fighting,
tooth and nail.
Bloomberg.com reports it as "The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg
News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans
from US taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral",
which Bloomberg thinks is is entitled to "under the US Freedom of Information
Act."
The reason the Fed gives is that trade secrets are in there
somehow! Mr Willie says, "The US Fed will continue to withhold internal memos
as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. Are you
kidding me? TRADE SECRETS BY AN AGENCY HIRED TO MANAGE THE DOLLAR AND
TREASURYS???"
It was with a degree of shock and alarm that I noted that the punctuation was
three question marks, which immediately puts me on High Alert Status (HAS) and
identifies it as something more than simple puzzlement, like when people
casually ask my wife, "Why in the hell don't you kill your husband and make it
look like an accident, or divorce him, or at least just get away from him and
maybe have a chance at a happy life?"
But I am too busy right now to think about that, or even come up with some
snotty answer that includes telling them all to "Kiss my butt!" because I am on
my way to work. Believe it or not!
Normally, I would not be caught dead around here in the late afternoon like
this, having neglected to come back to work after lunch, but a memo from my
boss keeps preying on my mind as it is telling me to prepare a presentation to
explain why my people lost so much money this year, why all my employees hate
me, why all my customers are suing me, and to clear up certain "accounting
irregularities" where it looks like I was charging greens fees to the employee
pension fund.
Now, I find that I have a bulletproof defense, and I can't wait to get back to
the office to work on it; I don't have to tell them anything! In fact, I laugh
at them all, "Hahahaha!" because what they want to know are my personal Mogambo
Management Trade Secrets (MMTS), and so I don't have to tell them!
Unfortunately, while I am exactly like the Federal Reserve in that we are both
total, complete failures at our jobs, mostly through sheer stupidity, the
repercussions are quite different.
So why do Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and the Fed get away with stonewalling,
while I have to barricade my office door with office furniture to keep some
foul-tempered security guards (Carl and Bullet Head) from getting inside?
Mr Willie says, "The US Fed is scared and on the defensive", which describes my
situation exactly, but the Fed seems to be predicating its actions on the
notion, according to the law firm Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz quoted by
Mr Willie, that "This is uncharted territory. The Freedom of Information Act
was not built to anticipate this situation. That is evident from the way the
Fed tried to shoehorn their argument into the trade secrets exemption." Wow!
Another difference between the Fed's situation and mine is that around here,
the building is being evacuated and there are policemen with bullhorns telling
me to come out with my hands up, and go with the nice men in the white coats
who want to take me out for tacos and beer, while, Mr Willie goes on, over at
the Fed, "This case is worth watching, but strangely receives very little
attention."
"Strangely" is right! But a lot of strange things have happened recently, like
how interest rates have recently been, literally, zero! And the 30-year US
Treasury bond is yielding less than 3%, which implies mental illness, stupidity
or corruption, or some of all three! This is insane!
And if history proves one thing, it is that insanity in things economic means
buy gold, stupidity in things economic means buy gold, and corruption in things
economic means buy gold.
Hey! This investing stuff is easy! Whee!
Richard Daughty is general partner and COO for Smith Consultant Group,
serving the financial and medical communities, and the editor of The Mogambo
Guru economic newsletter - an avocational exercise to heap disrespect on those
who desperately deserve it.
(Republished with permission from
The Daily Reckoning. Copyright 2009, The Daily Reckoning.)
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