According to the Washington Post, the Federal Reserve “made record profits in 2009″ while propping up the financial industry and will “return about $45 billion to the U.S. Treasury." Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has asked a U.S. appeals court to block a ruling that for the first time would force the central bank to reveal the secret identities of the financial firms to whom the Fed passed out over $2 trillion as part of the biggest bankster bailout in U.S. history. Bloomberg LP, a division of Bloomberg News, is arguing in court that the public has the right to know about the “unprecedented and highly controversial use” of public money. Banks and the Fed warn that bailed-out lenders may be hurt if the documents are made public, causing a run or a sell-off by investors, although when several of them were revealed back a year ago it didn't affect their share prices.  What this is really about is whether or not we're going to allow the Federal Reserve - a private banking corporation that is not Federal and has no reserves, but does control the money supply of our nation - to operate on and with our dollars in complete secrecy.  Legislators as disparate as Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich in the house, and Bernie Sanders and Judd Gregg have called for a full audit of the Fed, the first since it was created in 1913.  Even better would be for the Treasury Department to buy the fed back from its owners and turn it into a federal institution, so our nation can take back control of our money supply and our economy.