Where Have All the Billions Gone?

From the Inter-Press Service:

A new U.S. investigative panel is demanding answers from the U.S. Treasury about how the agency has spent money from the 700-billion-dollar bailout fund.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, a four-person board authorized by Congress and led by consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, is charged with finding out what Treasury has done with the billions it has already spent.

“We are here to ask the questions that we believe all Americans have a right to ask: who got the money, what have they done with it, how has it helped the country and how has it helped ordinary people?” the panel says in its first report, which lays out its work.

The panel has begun gathering documents from Treasury and also is holding a series of public meetings across the U.S., to hear the public’s concerns about the bailout and the economy. The panel expects to have some answers for Congress and the public by Jan. 9, when it will issue a report on its website, cop.senate.gov.

“We will be running very hard over the next 40 days,” Warren told members of Congress recently. Also on the panel are Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas; Richard Neiman, Superintendent of Banks in New York; and Damon Silvers, a lawyer with AFL-CIO.

“The recession has visited every household in the country. More than 100,000 families last month headed into bankruptcy courts. Americans are watching Washington’s every move with great concern,” Warren said.

In a desperate attempt to ease lending, the Federal Reserve Tuesday dropped the federal funds interest rate to between 0 and .25 percent, the lowest in decades.

The Warren panel lacks subpoena power but will work together with Special Inspector General Neil M. Barofsky, who will wield significant legal power, and the General Accounting Office, in auditing and overseeing the funds.

The rest of the article is here.