John Crudele: Wish my FOIA request a happy birthday

By John Crudele
New York Post
Thursday, July 26, 2007

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07262007/business/wish_my_foia_request_a_hap...

I'd like you to join me in wishing my FOIA request a happy birthday. It turned 1 year old yesterday.

Last July the Post's lawyers sent the first of several requests to the U.S. Treasury asking for copies of the minutes of meetings held since 2000 by the secretive organization called The President's Working Group on Financial Markets. FOIA refers to the Freedom of Information Act and it's supposed to be a way for the government -- our elected officials and their selected cronies -- to have the kind of transparency that keeps corruption and self-dealing at a minimum.

That's the theory anyway.

But laws like this only work, you know, when the government doesn't stonewall, which apparently is happening more and more in recent years.

The Columbia Journalism Review recently reported that Washington has been taking so long to comply with FOIA requests that the law is now being referred to as the Freedom To Wait For Your Information Act.

Maybe it should be the Freedom To Drop Dead Waiting for Your Information To Arrive Act. We'd then be making FTDDWFYITAA requests.

It has a nice ring to it, no?

But this is no joke. This is the law. And laws are made to be enforced.

It is especially important since Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson this week confirmed that the Working Group is on the ready for the next financial crisis -- but I'll have more on that in a minute.

A few months ago we got hold of an internal Treasury Department document that said our request for information "seems to have fallen through the cracks."

Funny, isn't it, how much wider the cracks are in Washington than anywhere else? That document, in a section titled "Spotlight on New York Post FOIA Request" dated April 5, suggested that the information we requested should be processed "ASAP."

We are still waiting.

So what are we really after? That's simple.

The President's Working Group is also known as the Plunge Protection Team.

The group was formed under an order issued by President Reagan in 1989 and while the group is more than happy to put together reports about things like trading in derivative securities, it is much less open to discussing what it does during perceived market disruptions.

I've been following this group for a decade but interesting details have surfaced in recent years.

George Stephanopoulos, a former top adviser to President Clinton, for instance, right after the 2001 terrorist attacks blurted out on TV that The President's Working Group was available to prop up the stock market in times of trouble.

In fact, I had a conversation about just such an action with a member of the Federal Reserve right after the 9/11 tragedy.

And this past Monday on Larry Kudlow's CNBC show, Treasury Secretary Paulson was warning that we cannot take the benign financial markets for granted and that we need to "get ready for a financial shock."

Paulson then added, "At the President's Working Group we monitor it."

Not only didn't Kudlow ask the Treasury Secretary what he meant, the host said "which Group is that?"

Really, Larry, when a government official tees one up like that for you -- at least take a swing.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 226 points the next day because of new concerns about subprime loans.

Don't go getting yourselves all steamed up about free markets and stuff.

There were actually well-respected people who proposed stock market intervention by the government and there was hardly a peep from the laissez-faire set.

Back in 1989, a Federal Reserve governor named Robert Heller, upon leaving office, suggested that his former organization be allowed to rig the stock market in an emergency.

Heller said the Fed should not take these actions recklessly but figured these powers would come in handy in dire times.

Our FOIA requests are simply asking whether the power to rig financial markets has ever been used. And -- if so -- is it being used judiciously?

That's why some of our requests to the Treasury have asked specifically for the minutes of meetings (including phone calls) that might have occurred on days when the stock market was misbehaving.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last year that The President's Working Group -- of which he is a member -- meets about five times a year.

Last summer another newspaper, however, remarked that the group was getting together more regularly since Paulson, its leader and former chief of Goldman Sachs, became Treasury Secretary.

Is it four or five times a year, or more? What about phone meetings?

I'm more than happy to play the role of monitor -- just send us the damned information we legally requested.

-------

John Crudele is business columnist for the New York Post.

* * *

Join GATA at these conferences:

The Silver Summit
Thursday-Friday, September 20-21, 2007
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
http://thesilversummit.com

New Orleans Investment Conference
Sunday-Thursday, October 21-25, 2007
New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.neworleansconference.com

* * *

Help Keep GATA Going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at http://www.gata.org/.

GATA is grateful for financial contributions, which are federally tax-deductible in the United States.