Shining a Light on Fed Operations

After a 2-plus year court battle, the Fed was recently forced to produce documents relating to its lending activities during the peak of the financial crisis. The bank had argued that releasing information regarding which banks had borrowed how much and when could open them up to speculators and cause unnecessary strains on the banking system. Meanwhile, news organizations such as Fox Business and Bloomberg argued that it was in the public interest for the documents to be made available.

Despite some nearly breathless exclamations in the media that foreign banks had tapped the lender, it is common practice for foreign banks with US operations to do so. However, even if the foreign lending is not all that newsworthy, there is still something to be gained from viewing the documents; some of the dollar figures are breathtaking no matter where in the world they ended up. For a glimpse into the operations of the Fed, open the documents found here. In advance, it is worth noting that there are multiple documents at that location and download times might be on the long side.