Trillions to banks as taxpayers left in the dark

The U.S. Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury have doled out trillions in taxpayer dollars to banks and corporations and now the boom may be falling on what lawmakers say is a shroud of secrecy that surrounds their actions. In separate hearings on Capitol Hill this week, lawmakers expressed support for a bill to make the Fed's decisions more transparent, and for the findings of a special inspector general report that calls for greater transparency in the Treasury's bailout of banks, called the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP). "Although Treasury has taken some steps towards improving transparency in TARP programmes, it has repeatedly failed to adopt recommendations that [the special inspector general] believes are essential to providing basic transparency and fulfill Treasury's stated commitment to implement TARP with the highest degree of accountability and transparency possible," says the report of Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky. "If Treasury doesn't put this information up on its website, this committee will. And if Treasury doesn't turn over this information voluntarily, Secretary [Timothy] Geithner will be brought before the committee to explain," said Democrat Edolphus Towns of New York, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In yet another sign of change to the institutions, President Barack Obama has fielded a proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would rearrange and strip some powers now held by the Fed. The proposal seems to have wide support among leading lawmakers. "I don't see why there shouldn't be 100 percent, crystal clear transparency of the actions taken at the Fed," said Republican Rep. Bill Posey of Florida. "The public has a right to know."