federal reserve

WikiLeaks may be the biggest information explosion this week, but Wednesday's mammoth release of documents pertaining to the Fed's bank bail out program could well spark the most outrage -- at least among those not fortunate enough to head a firm on Wall Street. The Federal Reserve, we know, floating cash all over the place in the cold months of '08 and '09. But not just to Wall Street. Apparently Harley-Davidson and Verizon were also “too big to fail." Distributed by Tubemogul.

May Day is observed in most countries outside of the U.S. as International Worker's Day or Labor Day. The word "mayday" is also a distress signal, a call for help and a call to action. Shepard Fairey, a longtime underground and street artist who came to be a household name with his "Hope" poster of Barack Obama, evoked both of these meanings at once with his "May Day" exhibition at Deitch Projects in New York City. Fairey's prints take on an array of political issues and celebrate icons from rock'n'roll, sports, and politics; from Woody Guthrie to Joe Strummer, Muhammad Ali to Aung San Suu Kyi. His friend and frequent collaborator, writer and filmmaker Antonino D'Ambrosio, wrote an essay to accompany the exhibition. In addition to the gallery show, Shepard hasn't forgotten his street art roots, painting a mural on the street at Lafayette and Bowery, and several less formal pieces of his have been spotted throughout the city recently. The exhibit is open through May 29th at the Deitch gallery. We sat down there recently with Shepard and Antonino to talk about art, rock'n'roll, populism, politics, and the common threads that run through all of their work. Plutarco El'as Calles was both a military general and later one of the most controversial presidents of Mexico. He is known for his status as a revolutionary hero, but also for bringing these (sometimes brutal) military tactics into his political career. Our Got Doc this week is "El General," a film created by Calles's granddaughter, Natalia Almada. She uses documentary film as a medium to reconcile her family's memories with her country's collective memory by telling the story through her grandmother's revelries. Finally, bipartisan agreement and a strike of progress in government regulation of the financial industry: In a unanimous vote of 96-0, the Senate passed an amendment to open the Federal Resere to a one-time audit of its lending between Decemeber 2007 to the present. Led by Ron Paul and Alan Grayson in the House and Bernie Sanders in the Senate and pushed by our friends at FireDogLake, the bill now heads to conference. Mary Bottari of BankstersUSA.org and the Center for Media and Democracy weighs in on a hard-fought victory for Main Street over Wall Street.

Republicans might have dropped their filibuster and agreed to allow a debate on financial reform, but with the amount of money that Wall Street firms have sunk into both Republicans and Democrats, does it make a difference? And what kind of reform do we really need, anyway? Independent Senator Bernie Sanders joins us via Skype from Washington to tell us what he thinks about financial regulations, too-big-to-fail banks, and transparency at the Federal Reserve. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.

Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, especially, apparently, the beauty of bailouts. In the U.S. right now, some see robust growth, others a limping progress. Some see unemployment edging down, others see it spiking up. It's all about the beholder. The U.S. Treasury is now estimating the cost of the bailout at $89 billion, considerably less than what's been reported since the fall of 2008. The $89 billion figure fits nicely into the vision of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who, as head of the New York Fed, was the point-man under Bush, overseeing the hand-out of dough to Wall Street. But where Geithner sees gentle waves, New York Times business reporter Gretchen Morgenson sees tsunamis -- counting it all up in the $1 trillion range. For one, there's the cost of lending to banks at near zero interest rate set that against what banks charge us -- which is to say an average 14% on credit cards -- and what they pay back in interest to depositors -- far too little, most of us think. Morgenson points to FDIC losses in taking over failed banks, including loss-sharing costs shouldered by taxpayers. That she puts at $400 billion. Against that, Geithner's $89 billion starts to fade fast. There's just one more thing left out of Geithner's figures: implied government guarantees, or what one bank analyst calls the "noxious byproduct" of systemic risk. A "deliberate low-balling that underestimates damage to the wider economy," that analyst observed, obscures $4 trillion in lost output globally, losses that can be permanent or persistent, in his words. So take your pick -- gentle waves or a global tsunami. Feel better yet? The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com. Distributed by Tubemogul.