Elizabeth Coleman: That’s correct.
Alan Grayson: Have you done any investigations concerning the Federal Reserve’s role in deciding not to save Lehman Brothers, which led to shockwaves that went through the entire financial system?
Elizabeth Coleman: In that particular area, you know, I don’t generally comment on specific investigations, but we do not currently have an investigation in that particular area.
Alan Grayson: All right, what about the $1 trillion-plus expansion of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet since last September? Have you conducted any investigations regarding that?
Elizabeth Coleman: Right now, we have a… we call it a review and the term investigation, we have different connotations. So we’re actually conducting a fairly high-level review of the various lending facilities collectively, which would include, you know, the tow [ph], a variety of the different programs that are in process, so we’re looking at them at a fairly high level to identify risks.
Alan Grayson: Well, I understand that, but we’re talking about events that started unfolding eight months ago. Have you reached any conclusions about the Fed expanding its balance sheet by over a trillion dollars since last September?
Elizabeth Coleman: We have not yet reached any conclusions.
Alan Grayson: Do you know who received that money?
Elizabeth Coleman: For the… we are in the process right now of doing our review and…
Alan Grayson: Right, but you’re the Inspector General. My question specifically is do you know who received that $1 trillion-plus that the Fed extended and put on its balance sheet since last September? Do you know the identity of the recipients?
Elizabeth Coleman: I do not know. We have not looked at that specific area at this particular point on those reviews.
Alan Grayson: What about Bloomberg’s report that there are trillions of dollars in off-balance sheet transactions that the Federal Reserve has entered into since last September? Are you familiar with those off-balance sheet transactions?
Elizabeth Coleman: You know, I think it may be important at this point to, just to bring up a certain aspect related to our jurisdiction and just to clarify perhaps some of my earlier comments. We are the Inspector General for the Board of Governors and we have direct oversight over Board programs and operations and we’re also able to look at Board-delegated functions to the Reserve Banks, as well as the Board’s oversight and supervision of the Reserve Bank. We do not have jurisdiction to directly go out and audit Reserve Bank activities specifically. Nevertheless, in our lending facilities projects, for example, we are looking at the Board’s oversight over the program and to the extent that it extends out to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Alan Grayson: Well, I have a copy of the Inspector General Act here in front of me and it says among other things that it's your responsibility to conduct and supervise audits and investigations relating to the programs and operations of your agency.
Elizabeth Coleman: That’s correct.
Alan Grayson: So I’m asking you if your agency has in fact, according to Bloomberg, extended $9 trillion in credit, which by the way works out to $30,000 for every single man, women and child in this country. I’d like to know, if you’re not responsible for investigating that, who is?
Elizabeth Coleman: We, actually… we have responsibility for the Federal Reserve’s programs and operations, to conduct audits and investigations in that area. In terms of who is responsible for investigating… would you mind repeating the question one more time?
Alan Grayson: What have you done to investigate the off-balance sheet transactions conducted by the Federal Reserve, which according to Bloomberg now total $9 trillion in the last 8 months?
Elizabeth Coleman: I’ll have to look specifically at that Bloomberg article. I’m not… I don’t know if I have actually seen that particular one.
Alan Grayson: That’s not the point. The question is have you done any investigation or auditing of off-balance sheet transactions conducted by the Federal Reserve?
Elizabeth Coleman: At this point, we’re at the very, we're conducting our lending facility project at a fairly high level and have not gotten to a specific level of detail to really be in a position to respond to your question.
Alan Grayson: Have you conducted any investigation or auditing of the losses that the Federal Reserve has experienced on its lending since last September?
Elizabeth Coleman: We are still in the process of conducting that review. Until we actually, you know, go out and gather the information, I’m not in a position to really respond to this specific question.
Alan Grayson: So are you telling me that nobody at the Federal Reserve is keeping track on a regular basis of the losses that it incurs on what is now a $2 trillion portfolio?
Elizabeth Coleman: I don’t know if… you’re telling me that there’s… you’re mentioning that there's losses. I’m just saying that we’re not… until we actually look at the program and have the information, we are not in a position to say whether there are losses or to respond in any other way to that question.
Alan Grayson: Mr. Chairman, my time is up, but I have to tell you honestly, I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve including the Inspector General is keeping track of this.
Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?
To reach equilibrium, the middle class will have to drop 40%. Do what Lincoln did, have the treasury issue money, not at interest? No reason why not. Stephen Zarlenga who has been on show has done a plan. The government could create credit like banks. Every recession lasts 2 years, severe, debt solution much worse. This depression will get much worse, many people are facing a lifetime of debt. Chicago mayor privatized parking meters, costs are up fourfold. Political solution? Wait for it to get so bad? People have to look at the debt issue, concentration of wealth. Milton Friedman said the Fed could be a single desk. Banks are robbing us blind.
Everything was so peaceful and silent that Vishnu slept undisturbed by dreams or motion. From the depths a humming sound began to tremble, Ohm. It grew and spread, filling the emptiness and throbbing with energy.
The night had ended, Vishnu awoke. As the dawn began to break, from Vishnu's navel grew a magnificent lotus flower. In the middle of the blossom sat Vishnu's servant, Brahma. He awaited the Lord's command.
Vishnu spoke to his servant: 'It is time to begin.' Brahma bowed. Vishnu commanded: 'Create the World.' A wind swept up the waters. Vishnu and the serpent vanished and the world was brought into being.
"On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!
Highlights on the agenda:
ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.
The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.
""I think the biggest problem that Obama faces is not Republicans, it’s the doctors. [...] I think that most normal people look to their doctors for advice and for their reaction to the big health care debates that take place in Washington. And doctors are opposed, very strongly opposed to one of the central tenets of Obama’s plan."
"Behind the Obama Code are seven crucial intellectual moves that I believe are historically, practically, and cognitively appropriate, as well as politically astute. They are not all obvious, and jointly they may seem mysterious. That is why it is worth sorting them out one-by-one.".
The 7 are:
- Values Over Programs
- Progressive Values are American Values
- Biconceptualism and the New Bipartisanship
- Protection and Empowerment
- Morality and Economics Fit Together
- Systemic Causation and Systemic Risk
- Contested Concepts and Patriotic Language
He recently wrote about the Obama code, what is it? The principals by which he works, implicit in everything he does. There are about 7. His view of morality - empathy, responsibility for others, excellence. He argues that these principles lie behind our democracy - freedom and fairness for everybody, because of empathy, we care about our countrymen. The way government works, protection and empowerment for everyone, including workers, the environment, systems that work. Equally available to everybody, nobody makes a dime without protection and empowerment from government, hence taxes. There are others. A lot of people are conservative on some issues and progressive on others. Bipartisanship is not moving to the right, but finding conservatives who are progressive on some issues. He said it in one press conference, but nobody reported on it. The economy is not just a banking system, economics, it is all we do to live, health, education, environment.
Idealized view, not realistic? Today he won't tell us who the visitors to the White House are. He has corporatists as economic advisors. He gives little support for the Employee Free Choice Act, and is for free trade. Escalation in Afghanistan. He has not stopped don't ask don't tell. Cramdown. Clean coal, nuclear. Military tribunals. He's still a hell of a lot better than Bush, maybe Clinton. The reality is he's a politician. Principle to get as much as he can, and be realistic. In "Audacity Of Hope" on gay marriage he said he was for it but not sure he can say it. He wrote the book in 2006. He said show us the movement, all politicians need cover, to be able to say his constituents want it. And we're not giving him cover on those things. Thom said too many people are working too hard to keep track, and too scared of losing health care with their jobs. Progressives do not have the communication system that the right has, such as booking speakers. The wealthy Democrats are not giving money for the right stuff.
"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
Franklin D. Roosevelt 27 June 1936, "A Rendezvous With Destiny" Speech to the Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"That very word freedom, in itself and of necessity, suggests freedom from some restraining power. In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy - from the eighteenth-century royalists who held special privileges from the crown...
But since that struggle, man's inventive genius released new forces in our land, forces which reordered the lives of our people. The age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution - all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a problem for those who sought to remain free.
"For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations and banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital - all undreamed of by the Fathers - the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service...
"Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise...
These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. But in their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike
".Franklin D. Roosevelt, 27 June 1936, "A Rendezvous With Destiny", Speech to the Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
