http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=apx7XNLnZZlc&refer=home

QUOTE
Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion in Lending

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- 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 Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as
well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The
institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents
pertaining to some of the requests.

“If they told us what they held, we would know the potential losses that the
government may take and that’s what they don’t want us to know,�?said
Carlos Mendez, who oversees about $14 billion at New York-based ICP Capital LLC.

Bloomberg News is a unit of New York-based Bloomberg LP.

The Fed stepped into a rescue role that was the original purpose of the
Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The central bank loans
don’t have the oversight safeguards that Congress imposed upon the
 TARP.

Total Fed lending exceeded $2 trillion for the first time Nov. 6. It rose by
138 percent, or $1.23 trillion, in the 12 weeks since Sept. 14, when central
bank governors relaxed collateral standards to accept securities that weren’t
rated AAA.

‘Been Bamboozled�?br>
Congress is demanding more transparency from the Fed and Treasury on the
bailout efforts, most recently during Dec. 10 hearings by the House Financial
Services committee when Representative David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, said
Americans had “been bamboozled.�?br>
In its response to Bloomberg’s request, the Fed said the U.S. is facing “an
unprecedented crisis�?when the “loss in confidence in and between financial
institutions can occur with lightning speed and devastating effects.�?