The Fed issued conflict-of-interest waivers and no-bid contracts to favored banks during the crisis.

Evidence

Even more damning details of the so-called rescue by the Fed were buried in a little-read GAO report. During the crisis, the Fed was printing conflict-of-interest waivers almost as fast as it printed money, precisely because many of the identities of the rescued and the saviors were essentially identical. For instance, the New York Fed president William Dudley was issued waivers to keep his AIG and GE investments all the while he was bailing out those firms. But beyond such garden-variety double-dealing, the Fed followed good neoliberal precepts by outsourcing most of its emergency lending programs to private contractors such as JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo in the form of no-bid contracts. These favored firms then turned around and were lavishly supported by the Fed with near-zero interest rate loans. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 510

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the crisis-as-neoliberal-experiment theme and to the policy-insider revolving-door literature. Also pairs with the GAO report as a primary source trail. — connects to: Bernanke’s Fed escaped any consequences for its failed crisis forecasting and bailouts — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 513; Banks with Fed directorships were more likely to receive TARP funds — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2083
• QUESTION: The GAO report reference is a lead worth chasing for the full documented list of waivers and no-bid contracts.

Broader Connections

• Banks with Fed directorships were more likely to receive TARP funds #corroborates (0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2083
• Bernanke’s Fed escaped any consequences for its failed crisis forecasting and bailouts #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 513