Bernie Sanders has cracked opened the Federal Reserve, a powerful part of government too used to operating beyond the reach of public scrutiny or accountability.

The information pouring out about how the Fed doled out $3.3 trillion in aid during the financial crisis -- thanks in large part to Vermont's independent senator - is a victory for transparency against a public institution too long shrouded in secrecy.

Sanders says the Fed loans are "corporate welfare," and the disclosures represent "incredible and jaw-dropping details of the Fed's multitrillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and corporate America."

People can disagree with Sanders' conclusions about the wisdom and fairness of how the money was spent, but there is no denying that voters and taxpayers are better off knowing who benefited from the Fed actions and how.

The culture of central banks around the world is one of secrecy. A whole industry is devoted to parsing the carefully worded pronouncements of central bankers for hints about policy direction on which the financial world makes huge bets.

But when the Fed intervenes in the economy, the central bank is executing public policy on behalf of the people of the United States. There is no reason to withhold information the people and their representatives need to evaluate those policies except in very specific cases.

Now the Federal Reserve is in the position of having to publicly defend loaning billions of dollars to aid private corporations and foreign banks during the height of the financial crisis. Sanders vows that Congress, too, will delve into the details of the Fed lending.

The Fed's actions might have served the long-term interests of the national economy, but Americans will now have to rely less on blind faith in the wisdom of the central bankers to make up their minds.

The vast sums of money expended on propping up banks and corporations need to be justified given the great need in many other areas that are being squeezed because the government lacks money. This is called accountability, something to which governments at all level must be subjected.

The first and indispensable step to accountability is to know what our government is up to. Sanders, who inserted the provision requiring the Fed disclosure into the financial reform bill, calls this "a major victory for the American taxpayer and for transparency in government."

Maybe the senator can give Peter Shumlin some pointers as the governor-elect sets out to fulfill his campaign pledge to vastly improve transparency and accountability in Vermont state government.