Funny that the teabaggers can’t seem to get upset about this sort of stuff (via Atrios):
As top Federal Reserve officials debated whether there was a housing bubble and what to do about it, then-Chairman Alan Greenspan argued that the dissent should be kept secret so that the Fed wouldn’t lose control of the debate to people less well-informed than themselves.
“We run the risk, by laying out the pros and cons of a particular argument, of inducing people to join in on the debate, and in this regard it is possible to lose control of a process that only we fully understand,” Greenspan said, according to the transcripts of a March 2004 meeting.
We common folks are only allowed to look at these minutes five years after the meetings take place, and, because of the fact that they are dumped only yearly, it actually works out to six. More than enough time for the only people who “fully understand” the workings of the economy to destroy it without us being in on the coming disaster.
There is actually a measure of bi-partisanship behind Bernie Sander’s attempt to mandate audits of the Fed. The Fed, at this point, is a fourth branch of government (unless you count the CIA) and it’s more secretive than the Supreme Court. We really should have a right to know what our betters are doing to us in the comfy confines of their paneled offices, but my guess is that such a radical step will never be taken.
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