Senate Will Not Snoop Around the Fed's Turf

In move that will certainly displease some, if not many, the newly Al Franken-ed Senate will not jump at the opportunity to scrutinize the monetary wonks at the Federal Reserve.

"On procedural grounds, the Senate blocked a bid to permit the U.S. comptroller general, who heads the investigative arm of Congress known as the Government Accountability Office, to audit the Federal Reserve system and issue a report."

At this point, most Americans, if they've even heard of the Fed, probably assume that it is some sort of Dr. Strangelove-ish round table of dolts.

They wouldn't be entirely wrong but since we're dealing with financial Armageddon as opposed to a runaway pilot with incorrectly received orders to drop the bomb, it might be in our best interest to have an idea of what the hell is going on at the Fed. Just sayin'.

U.S. Senate turns aside new attempt to scrutinize Fed [Reuters]

Sphere: Related Content

Scoping - 6.11.09

Satyam shares rise after profit - Legitimate profits? Skeptical....[BBC]

Bernanke e-mail claim in Merrill sale saga - "After the Fed initially refused to comply with the committee’s request for documents and e-mails in the matter, the committee took the extraordinary step of issuing a subpoena on Tuesday to obtain material from the Fed that concerned the deal." Extraordinary? God forbid the Fed actually have any transparency. [FT.com]

Regulators Ready New Rules for O.T.C. Derivatives - [DealBook]

California Has 50 Days To Live - [Clusterstock] Sphere: Related Content

Review Comments - 6.9.09

E-mails? Get to the point already! - [Miami Herald]

Bank of America Covering Ang Moz's Legal Fees - No word whether K to the L is also picking up the tanning sessions [Dealbreaker]

Former AT&T Chief to Be G.M.’s New Chairman - Good luck with that. [DealBook]

House Committee Subpoenas Federal Reserve Over BofA-Merrill - Did Hank Paulson do a throaty Jack Bauer impression in order to scare the beejesus out of Ken Lewis until he promised he would buy Merrill Lynch? Was Ben Bernanke the puppet master (a la Jon Voight)? Did John Thain have to recharge his batteries after the fourth hour of interrogation so he could continue watching? They better get to the bottom of this thing. [WSJ via Zero Hedge]

Sphere: Related Content

Review Comments - 6/5/2009

Couple Indicted on Charges of Spying for Cuba - Because there's something so damn cool about spies [New York Times]

Fed Intends to Hire Lobbyist in Campaign to Buttress Its Image - Former Enron lobbyist no less. [Bloomberg]

Imagining a G.M. Fire Sale - Less than $10B would be the estimate. Ouch. [DealBook]

Brothel Now Targeting Women To Cope With Slump In Demand - Just in case that internship isn't as fun as you thought [Clusterstock] Sphere: Related Content

June 17th: Super Regulatory Friends Roll Out

The date is set people! The plan to fix everything once and for all will be given to us, courtesy of the Obama Administration, on June 17th, according to Reuters.

T to the mother f'n G will testify on June 18th in order to stammer through everything in painfully gruesome detail.

Long story/short. The Fed is going to make anything and everything its bitch, since it will be the "systematic risk regulator", Office of Thrift Services will merge with the Office of Comptroller Currency to oversee banks and the FDIC will be the Fed's right hand, having the superpower to unwind the AIG's of the world.

The Fed will still be the puppet master overseeing hedge funds, private equity, derivatives, and broker dealers, since they could all fall under "systematic risk". Me thinks that term is going to come in awful handy...

U.S. to unveil regulatory reform plan June 17: source [Reuters]

Sphere: Related Content