Comments on: Bailout Scandal: Undisclosed Sums Paid to NY Mellon Bank

By: 2008 Year-End Statistics | Blogging Hope

2008 Year-End Statistics | Blogging Hope — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:57:38 +0000

[...] about 64,000 pageviews of the 247 posts on the blog in 2008, the most popular post being “Bailout Scandal: Undisclosed Sums Paid to NY Mellon Bank.” (OK, public: more scandal in 2009. These are the incentives the mainstream press lives with [...]

By: 2008 Year-End Statistics - The WashingtonWatch.com Blog

2008 Year-End Statistics - The WashingtonWatch.com Blog — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:59:29 +0000

By: The $17.4 Billion Auto Bailout Plan - The WashingtonWatch.com Blog

The $17.4 Billion Auto Bailout Plan - The WashingtonWatch.com Blog — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:23:26 +0000

[...] They could have asked me . . . . [...]

By: The Bailout: Secret Payments? ( Finance, Banking & Monetary Policy ) | TheScholarsForum

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:40:36 +0000

[...] the WashingtonWatch.com blog: Just two weeks after the passage of the bailout bill, and one day after a Treasury Department [...]

By: droel

droel — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:12:40 +0000

The mortgages will be ‘bought’ by the states and granted to the homeowners after ‘foreclosure.’ The federal funds pay the state to buy. Obama’s new Chicago friend.

By: PrincetonU.

PrincetonU. — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:28:15 +0000

After the $850 BILLION BAILOUT Fleecing by Congress and Executive branch of government, it’s business as usual for governments and banks to take everything possible form the people.

From the bank crisis of 1907 to the banking debt disasters today, the people will always be picked clean to the bone for whatever money the government can take.

The Federal Reserve, which btw, is the secretative ILLEGAL organization with very little transparency, continues it’s wasteful gifts to JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BofA and the rest.

When are the people going to wakeup and call and end to this conspiring government and bank deals?

All backroom deals!

By: Roman’s Website » Blog Archive » The Secret Salaries of the Bailout

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:47:40 +0000

[...] “Just two weeks after the passage of the bailout bill, and one day after a Treasury Department official declared, ‘we are committed to transparency and oversight in all aspects of the program,’ the Treasury Department began covering up the amount it would pay to New York Mellon Bank to act as a financial agent in the bailout.” (Read more from washingtonwatch.com) [...]

By: Jim Harper

Jim Harper — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:19:14 +0000

It’s not at all clear. The modifier “and that is privileged or confidential” would not generally describe amounts earned in a public contract.

There is an entire Web site at USASpending.gov devoted to publicizing amounts spent in public contracts. It’s an unusual exception to that general rule to treat the amount earned by a service provider as confidential.

If you’re against transparency for some substantive reason, say why.

By: gary

gary — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:06:21 +0000

Here’s the exception. It’s pretty clear:

Certain confidential information, including trade secrets, commercial or financial information obtained from a person and that is privileged or confidential;

By: Jim Harper

Jim Harper — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:17:46 +0000

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Gary. However, I believe that the exception you’re talking about is for trade secrets and confidential financial information, like an individual’s finances or a private company’s profit and loss statements. Though I’m not a FOIA expert, I don’t think it’s intended for amounts being paid to a firm in a public contract. Such information is routinely published, and should be especially in a case of such great interest and expense. Thanks again.