Making the Public's Business Public

Americans deserve to know what happened with their money in the government bailout of the financial sector, whether the money went out through the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department with the TARP Program.

For nearly two years, there have been unanswered questions about who benefitted from the New York Fed’s bailout of insurance giant AIG in September 2008.  I kept the pressure on for a public accounting of what happened to the money that went to Goldman Sachs.

After a Finance Committee hearing last week, Goldman Sachs provided the information.  The new documents show that Goldman used bailout cash to pay “counterparties” including 32 hedge funds and financial institutions around the world.  The money from The New York Fed also allowed Goldman Sachs to avoid having to make claims on insurance it had purchased to protect itself from an AIG failure.

So, the Fed bailed out AIG, and the money flowed through AIG to a few large banks, including Goldman Sachs.  Now we know where the money kept flowing.  It was to financial institutions and operations all over the world. 

I will continue to fight for transparency and accountability from the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.  

A Des Moines Register article about the effort is available here.

A New York Times article is available here.