Off Limits, but Blessed by the Fed

``The good news arrived in a confidential letter from the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. The nation's biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase, had won the right to expand its reach in a lucrative business that has nothing to do with banking: electricity... Three months later, JPMorgan traders began a scheme to manipulate electricity prices, ultimately forcing consumers in those regions to pay more every time they flicked on a light switch or an air-conditioner, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission subsequently contended.... confidential documents, many obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that since 2005 the Fed has granted three special exemptions to JPMorgan Chase alone.''