I felt I had to bring this to the attention of the DailyKos community. Contracts being made regarding the $700 Billion Bailout are having significant sections blacked out.
My friend pointed me to this great blog, bailoutsleuth, that is keeping tabs on the $700 Billion Bailout -- and in particular, an article entitled The End of Bailout Transparency Already
Summary below the fold...
The copy of the agreement that was made public had blacked-out paragraphs in the section covering Bank of New York Mellon's compensation. If the Treasury Department is unwilling to disclose the particulars of that contract -- or even the general outline of the compensation scheme -- that raises questions about how it will treat disclosure of other bailout transactions.
The post has images of the redacted contracts, as well. The blacked out sections pertain to the compensation of Bank of New York Mellon and of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
According to the post,
The Treasury Department told other news organizations that the information on the bank's compensation will be released when other details of the program, such the hiring of subcontractors, are finalized.
Hopefully, that is the case. Still, I see no need for such information to be kept from the public at this time -- but, I'm no expert. Would the hiring of sub-contractors be complicated by the public release of these compensation values?
Either way, a big thank you to bailoutsleuth for keeping an eye on the details for us.