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Fed Refuses to Disclose Who's Getting What - Claims Trade Secrets Involved

The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The Bloomberg lawsuit said the collateral lists ?are central to understanding and assessing the government?s response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression.?

In response, the Fed argued that the trade-secret exemption could be expanded to include potential harm to any of the central bank?s customers, said Bruce Johnson, a lawyer at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Seattle. That expansion is not contained in the freedom-of-information law, Johnson said.

?I understand where they are coming from bureaucratically, but that means it?s all the more necessary for taxpayers to know what exactly is going on because of all the money that is being hurled at the banking system,? Johnson said.

Full post as published by Womble Trade Secrets Blog on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).