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Workshop Registration
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
Online Seminars
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
An Open Newsroom
By Kelly Carr
Promoting Diversity
By Chris Roush
Relevant Economics
By Dick Weiss
The Bailout Cash Trail
By Michelle Leder
Post-Election Business Coverage: The Day After and Beyond
By Reynolds Center Staff
The Bailout Cash Trail
By Michelle Leder
October 27, 2008
Two weeks ago, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act in an effort to fix the serious problems that have been roiling the financial markets. While reasonable people may disagree about whether the legislation was necessary, the fact is that the legislation has been passed and signed by President Bush. And one thing is clear: there will be a lot of taxpayer money - $700 billion and counting - that will need to be kept track of.
While the ink on the bill - which as initially proposed by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was a paltry three pages but has since swelled to over 450 - has barely dried, there's already a few controversies about some of the companies that the Treasury Department has hired.
According to a new blog called Bailout Sleuth, which plans to closely track bailout disbursements, the Treasury Department has been heavy-handed when it comes to providing full disclosure on some of its bailout-related dealings and has literally used a black pen to delete all sorts of information it posts on the Treasury Department's own site. As BailoutSleuth, which was started by former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Chris Carey (and is funded by outspoken billionaire Mark Cuban) recently reported, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. had been hired under a three-year contract to provide custodial services. But the contract that was posted on the Treasury Department's own website blacked out how much Bank of New York Mellon would receive under the contract. Other bailout-related contracts - with accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young also have sections deleted. While those contracts disclose the amounts to be paid to the firms - $191,469.27 and $492.006.95, respectively - other key elements of the contract posted to the Treasury Department's site are deleted.
While this is a fairly common practice in SEC filings - contracts between two companies that pop up in the filings are routinely heavily redacted even when both companies are publicly traded - the nature of the EESA means that investors - American taxpayers - deserve better disclosure than what we've seen so far. Given the amount of money involved, the inherent conflicts involved in doling out that money and the controversy over the need to spend $700 billion in the first place, business journalists will do their readers a huge service by helping them understand where this money is going, even if it means delving into documents marked with lots of black ink.
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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
By Kelly Carr
Promoting Diversity
By Chris Roush
Relevant Economics
By Dick Weiss
The Bailout Cash Trail
By Michelle Leder
Post-Election Business Coverage: The Day After and Beyond
By Reynolds Center Staff
The Bailout Cash Trail
By Michelle Leder
October 27, 2008
Two weeks ago, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act in an effort to fix the serious problems that have been roiling the financial markets. While reasonable people may disagree about whether the legislation was necessary, the fact is that the legislation has been passed and signed by President Bush. And one thing is clear: there will be a lot of taxpayer money - $700 billion and counting - that will need to be kept track of.
While the ink on the bill - which as initially proposed by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was a paltry three pages but has since swelled to over 450 - has barely dried, there's already a few controversies about some of the companies that the Treasury Department has hired.
According to a new blog called Bailout Sleuth, which plans to closely track bailout disbursements, the Treasury Department has been heavy-handed when it comes to providing full disclosure on some of its bailout-related dealings and has literally used a black pen to delete all sorts of information it posts on the Treasury Department's own site. As BailoutSleuth, which was started by former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Chris Carey (and is funded by outspoken billionaire Mark Cuban) recently reported, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. had been hired under a three-year contract to provide custodial services. But the contract that was posted on the Treasury Department's own website blacked out how much Bank of New York Mellon would receive under the contract. Other bailout-related contracts - with accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young also have sections deleted. While those contracts disclose the amounts to be paid to the firms - $191,469.27 and $492.006.95, respectively - other key elements of the contract posted to the Treasury Department's site are deleted.
While this is a fairly common practice in SEC filings - contracts between two companies that pop up in the filings are routinely heavily redacted even when both companies are publicly traded - the nature of the EESA means that investors - American taxpayers - deserve better disclosure than what we've seen so far. Given the amount of money involved, the inherent conflicts involved in doling out that money and the controversy over the need to spend $700 billion in the first place, business journalists will do their readers a huge service by helping them understand where this money is going, even if it means delving into documents marked with lots of black ink.
Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism