It’s clear that Bernanke does not want the rock turned over to see what slimy things live underneath, and so we have some more measures taken by the Federal Reserve to try to mute calls for an audit, and perhaps a re-evaluation of the role and powers of the institution.

They have implemented more consumer friendly credit card rules (also here and here), and now Bernanke is saying that the central bank would welcome an audit of their dealings with AIG by the GAO.

In the latter quote, the pertinent quote is this:

The invitation does not represent any procedural changes, as GAO could have reviewed the issue without such an invitation. But the does letter highlight the Fed’s sensitivity to mounting criticism to the events leading up to the bailout.

So, if the Federal Reserve has no choice, then they will write a nice letter saying, “Okily dokily, neighbor.”

I expect that if the GAO conducts an audit, it will take crowbars and explosives to actually extract any meaningful information though.