Secrets From The Bailout--What The Fed Knew And Didn't Tell

Bloomberg News is out with an important new study of the financial crisis and government actions to "battle" the crisis. Based on Bloomberg’s examination of 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under a FOIA request and central bank databases detailing more than 21,000 transactions, Bloomberg writes:

• Taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret loans helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.

• Challenges the view championed by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and others that saving the banks meant saving the economy.

• Brings to light that bankers used the money to lobby against reforms, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers, even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

• Banks likely have earned an estimated $12.9 billion in profit by taking advantage of the Fed's below-market rates.

The full story is here.