Hamsher got Dodd's response to his May 5 promise

In this September 30 post, I offered a brief history of the Fed's opposition to transparency, including Senator Dodd's complicity in maintaining secrecy regarding who got the Fed's $12 trillion in bailouts. And though I don't have a "court action update" on Bloomberg's lawsuit, I do know that Jane Hamsher has provided an update.

On December 16, she authored Chris Dodd Embraces Secrecy and Bailouts, Redux. She starts her piece:

Back in May, Marcy Wheeler and I met with Chris Dodd, and I asked him if he knew, as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which banks the Fed was lending to. He said he’d find out and get back to me. He finally did. He asks the Fed why he shouldn’t know these things, they told him, and he sent me their response. The letter is below the fold.

There’s an interesting historical note about why the Senate divides itself into committees. When the Senate first convened in 1785, the Senate found that it could not irritate and disappoint enough constituents fast enough on enough issues. So the Senate split iself up into committees and thus became able to vastly increase the number of people they aggravated with their self-serving bullshit.

Tim White