Tue 2010-03-09 18:09 EST

Fed Audit Bitterly Opposed By Treasury

Ryan Grim

The Treasury Department is vigorously opposed to a House-passed measure that would open the Federal Reserve to an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a senior Treasury official said Monday... "It's interesting that the Fed regards the simple fact that people find out what it does as somehow being unduly restrictive. We are a government of laws, not of men," [said Representative Alan Grayson]. "It's certainly no surprise that banking insiders at Treasury don't want transparency at the Fed," said Jesse Benton, a spokesman for Rep. Paul. "They are wrapped up in the central bank shenanagins too, and do not want their wheelings and dealings out in the open any more than Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke,"

Fed Audit Bitterly Opposed; Treasury.

Sun 2010-01-31 23:06 EST

The Formula for This Market Rally In Simple Terms

The first, most obvious trend is the Manic Mondays trend...for the 43 weeks ended Friday January 8, 2010, stocks have rallied on 30 out of the 43 Mondays...these Monday ramp jobs have contributed the bulk of the market rally's gains since March 2009...The second trend that has dominated this market since the March 2009 bottom is the Bernanke Options Expiration juicing. In simple terms Ben Bernanke has shown a REAL preference for pumping money into the financial system on the exact week when options are expiring...The final trend that has dominated this market is cousin to the Manic Monday Ramp Job. It is the Night Session Ramp Job...from September 13, 2009 until year-end, ALL of the stock market's gains occurred in the over-night futures session from 4:00 ET to 9:30 AM ET...So there you have it, the three most dominant trends of this market rally. None of them are pretty. None of them involve fundamentals. And ALL of them are directly related to the Fed's liquidity pump.

Formula; markets Rally; simple terms.

The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Wed 2009-11-25 12:11 EST

Geithner Singled Out In TARP Watchdog Neil Barofsky's Scathing Report On AIG Bailout

The Huffington Post News Editors

In its bailout last fall of the insurance giant AIG, a team led by current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner failed nearly every step of the way, according to a scathing report released Monday by a government watchdog. Instead of bargaining with AIG's numerous counterparties to resolve its billions of dollars in souring derivatives contracts, Geithner's team ended up funneling payments for those toxic derivatives to AIG's counterparties at "an amount far above their market value at the time," the report notes.

AIG Bailout; com; full Feeds; Geithner singled; HuffingtonPost; TARP watchdog Neil Barofsky's scathing report.

Fri 2009-11-20 10:30 EST

Curious Meeting at Treasury Department >> naked capitalism

Yves Smith

The Treasury invited a small group of bloggers for a ``discussion'' with senior officials on Monday...we bloggers and the government officials kept talking past each other, in that one of us would ask a question, the reply would leave the questioner or someone in the audience unsatisfied, there might be a follow up question (either same person or someone interested), get another responsive-sounding but not really answer, and then another person would get the floor...the people we met are very cognitively captured, assuming one can take their remarks at face value. Although they kept stressing all the things that had changed or they were planning to change, the polite pushback from pretty all the attendees was that what Treasury thought of as major progress was insufficient...It was also striking to see that the Treasury officials did not articulate vision for a banking system for the 21st century that was materially different that the one we have now...

Curious Meeting; naked capitalism; Treasury Department.

Fri 2009-11-20 09:59 EST

Interfluidity :: Sympathy for the Treasury

On Monday, I was among a group of eight bloggers who attended a discussion with "senior Treasury officials" in Washington...Although the format of our meeting did not lend itself to forging deep relationships, I was flattered and grateful for the meeting and left with more sympathy for the people I spoke to than I came in with. In other words, I have been corrupted, a little...The most interesting aspect of the meeting was anthropological, getting a look at how senior Treasury officials behaved, how they interacted with us and what kind of a thing this was to them. It was a two hour meeting, but different groups of officials came at us in shifts, and stayed with us for 20 to 40 minutes. The tone of the meeting was open, earnest, and informal. But somehow, it never felt like we connected, like there was a lot of actual communication occurring.

Interfluidity; sympathy; Treasury.

zero hedge Thu 2009-10-22 20:14 EDT

Monday's Reverse Repo Test A Disaster?

On Monday the Federal Reserve held a major reverse repo test, as was announced by the NY Fed and by Zero Hedge. We have subsequently received several unconfirmed reports that the conducted test has been a disaster...

disaster; Monday's Reverse Repo Test; Zero Hedge.

Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2009-08-20 16:16 EDT

China Makes Biggest Cut in US Treasury Assets Since 2000

Jesse

One has to wonder how long the UK, Japan and the US can keep supporting each other's crony capitalist oligopolies. China DailyChina cuts US Treasury holdings in June2009-08-18NEW YORK: China reduced its holdings of US Treasury debt in June by the biggest margin in nearly nine years, according to a US Treasury Department report issued on Monday.China cut its net holdings by 3.1 percent to $776.4

2000; China Makes Biggest Cut; Jesse's Café Américain; treasury assets.

Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2009-08-20 16:11 EDT

China Makes Biggest Cut in US Treasury Assets Since 2000

Jesse

One has to wonder how long the UK, Japan and the US can keep supporting each other's crony capitalist oligopolies. China DailyChina cuts US Treasury holdings in June2009-08-18NEW YORK: China reduced its holdings of US Treasury debt in June by the biggest margin in nearly nine years, according to a US Treasury Department report issued on Monday.China cut its net holdings by 3.1 percent to $776.4

2000; China Makes Biggest Cut; Jesse's Café Américain; treasury assets.

Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2009-08-20 16:11 EDT

China Makes Biggest Cut in US Treasury Assets Since 2000

Jesse

One has to wonder how long the UK, Japan and the US can keep supporting each other's crony capitalist oligopolies. China DailyChina cuts US Treasury holdings in June2009-08-18NEW YORK: China reduced its holdings of US Treasury debt in June by the biggest margin in nearly nine years, according to a US Treasury Department report issued on Monday.China cut its net holdings by 3.1 percent to $776.4

2000; China Makes Biggest Cut; Jesse's Café Américain; treasury assets.

Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2009-08-20 16:07 EDT

China Makes Biggest Cut in US Treasury Assets Since 2000

Jesse

One has to wonder how long the UK, Japan and the US can keep supporting each other's crony capitalist oligopolies. China DailyChina cuts US Treasury holdings in June2009-08-18NEW YORK: China reduced its holdings of US Treasury debt in June by the biggest margin in nearly nine years, according to a US Treasury Department report issued on Monday.China cut its net holdings by 3.1 percent to $776.4

2000; China Makes Biggest Cut; Jesse's Café Américain; treasury assets.