Pulling back the shroud on the Fed

A federal appeals court has ordered the Federal Reserve to disclose the names of financial firms that benefited from a $2 trillion loan program designed to prop up ailing companies after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

From Bloomberg:

The Fed had argued that it could withhold the information under an exemption that allows federal agencies to refuse disclosure of “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, “sets forth no basis for the exemption the Board asks us to read into it,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote in the opinion. “If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest, it should ask Congress to amend the statute.”

An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seems likely.