Tell Congress: "No More Dough Until We Know Where It Goes--Sign the Petition!

I got this email from Firedoglake today:

"On January 13, Rep. Alan Grayson asked Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn to provide the names of the banks that received $1.2 trillion since September 2008.

Kohn refused.

Last week, AIG announced $61 billion in 4th quarter 2008 losses. Economist Nouriel Roubini called it "a nontransparent, opaque and shady bailout of the AIG counterparties." Still, the Fed refused to answer questions from Democrats like Chris Dodd and Republicans like Richard Shelby -- where did the money go?


Congress needs to hear that we want answers, too: No More Dough Til We Know Where It Goes.

Sign today and we'll deliver your signature and comments to Congress:

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/Transparency

The petition says: "Dear Members of Congress: The public needs to know where all our money has gone. Restoring public trust is critical in getting our economy back on its feet. We ask that you move swiftly to re-regulate and bring transparency to a financial system whose rules have been written by bank lobbyists for their own benefit. No additional bank bailout funds should be approved until that happens."

We're now being told it will take another $750 billion, in addition to the original $700 billion, to bail out the banks.

Can you sign our petition today? Congress needs to know that if they demand answers to their questions, we'll support them. Click here to add your name:

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/Transparency

-- Jane Hamsher and the Firedoglake team


PS: Please join us live right now for a chat with economist James K. Galbraith, who is answering questions about the need for transparency at http://firedoglake.com. Hosted by Christy Hardin Smith.

We're having a series of online chats this week with experts who will be discussing the critical need for bank bailout transparency. We know everyone has a lot of questions about what's happening, so please come by and ask them:


TUESDAY 7 pm ET: Rep. Alan Grayson, (D-FL), member of the House Financial Services Committee
THURSDAY 3:30pm ET: David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times former reporter and author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense [and Stick You with the Bill]
THURSDAY: Mark Pittman, Bloomberg News, a finance journalist who has covered the collapse. Bloomberg has filed many FOIA requests and done tremendous work seeking transparency.
FRIDAY 11am ET: Economist Rob Johnson, formerly a managing director at Soros Funds Management and chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee.

Want to support this series of chats? Bank lobbyists spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress last year, but we depend on people like you. Chip in here: https://secure.firedoglake.com/page/contribute/TransparencyFunds09"