This is an intriguing exchange between Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-08-D) and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn.
While I think that the US has few choices right now about the scale of financial stimulus and efforts to get the financial system back into some degree of relative health, there are many choices regarding the ‘terms’ of federal support.
I had no idea that there was a shroud over the roster of financial institutions that were drawing on American taxpayer money to shore up their positions. Some institutions are not taking federal money — and some are.
Some financial firms are financing the offshoring of American industry and even their own backshop operations — but we don’t know which of these firms have been on the dole and which not. It’s my view that firms that take funds from America’s middle class owe something back to America’s national employment base.
But we have no way at this point of knowing who is on the roster of support from the Federal Reserve. This seems wrong.
Kudos to Congressman Grayson for trying to open this door.
— Steve Clemons
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