peepinmofo Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?i...53-62060dcbb3c3 The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. "As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world," said Sanders. "This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else." Among the investigation's key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. "No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said. The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse. In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans. For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed's board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed's emergency lending programs. In another disturbing finding, the GAO said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given bailout funds. One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it might have created the appearance of a conflict of interest. To Sanders, the conclusion is simple. "No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed's board of directors or be employed by the Fed," he said. The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced most of its emergency lending programs to private contractors, many of which also were recipients of extremely low-interest and then-secret loans. The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their emergency lending programs to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. The same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Altogether some two-thirds of the contracts that the Fed awarded to manage its emergency lending programs were no-bid contracts. Morgan Stanley was given the largest no-bid contract worth $108.4 million to help manage the Fed bailout of AIG. A more detailed GAO investigation into potential conflicts of interest at the Fed is due on Oct. 18, but Sanders said one thing already is abundantly clear. "The Federal Reserve must be reformed to serve the needs of working families, not just CEOs on Wall Street." To read the GAO report, click here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC=UGA Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 That's fu(ked up. As I sit hear worried about the fact that we are bleeding vast sums of cash to try and keep the company going through this recession others simply received 1% loans on the order of trillions of dollars for monies they themselves mis-appropriated. Funny enough, now they won't even lend to scores of others who need money dearly to survive through this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrip Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Why is this not big news? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC=UGA Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Why is this not big news? I'm guessing "they" don't want it to be... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeeR Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 "No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said. ? I thought they weren't a federal agency but a private institution. Which is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Why is this not big news? Because it just isn't any more. No-one is paying any attention because they either are involved in the racket / circle jerk / ruling plutocratic oligarchy or they are reliant on it or they have the attention span of a field mouse and are too busy watching American Idol. The corruption is now so massive and all-encompassing that no-one even bothers to hide it any more. It's driven by the ovine docility of the populace and the wholesale purchase of all levels of government. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muck Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Because it just isn't any more. No-one is paying any attention because they either are involved in the racket / circle jerk / ruling plutocratic oligarchy or they are reliant on it or they have the attention span of a field mouse and are too busy watching American Idol. ...or they are so busy eating the sh|t sandwich they're trying to choke down (i.e., loss of job and potential foreclosure), they don't really have the time to get pissed about this because they're too busy trying to take care of themselves and their family... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 That's fu(ked up. +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peepinmofo Posted July 22, 2011 Author Share Posted July 22, 2011 Link to the full report: http://sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GA...vestigation.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Beatings Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I guarantee you that absolutely nothing will be done about any of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 How does it feel to be a cog in the machine, a sheep in the flock, a slave to the system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Keep giving them hell Bernie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I bet our grandparents and great-grandparents had wished the Fed had done something like this at the beginning of the Great Depression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I'm having a hard time understanding how it could really be $16 trillion when our national debt is $14 trillion. That's an ungodly amount of money. If they were secret payments and didn't get authorized through congress, where the hell did it come from? Are they saying the Fed just printed it? Wouldn't that make our currency pretty much worthless at this point? And why is this not on every major network right now? Remember when you heard "billion" in the news and thought whoa, that's a lot of money?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I'm having a hard time understanding how it could really be $16 trillion when our national debt is $14 trillion. That's an ungodly amount of money. If they were secret payments and didn't get authorized through congress, where the hell did it come from? Are they saying the Fed just printed it? Wouldn't that make our currency pretty much worthless at this point? And why is this not on every major network right now? Remember when you heard "billion" in the news and thought whoa, that's a lot of money?? The Fed actually "printed" up about more than a trillion dollars (actually, they electronically transfered the money into banks' accounts, so few real dollar bills were printed up). And the affect on the nation's overall money supply has actually been quite minimal. The $16 trillion dollar in loans, is a result of a double-counting of loans that were rolled over. For example, if I loan you $1 for one year, the methodology employed here would say that you made $1 in loans. If I loan you a dollar for a day, 365 days in a row, then this methodology would say that I made $365 in loans to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpwallace49 Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Where is brentastic???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muck Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 The Fed actually "printed" up about more than a trillion dollars (actually, they electronically transfered the money into banks' accounts, so few real dollar bills were printed up). And the affect on the nation's overall money supply has actually been quite minimal. The $16 trillion dollar in loans, is a result of a double-counting of loans that were rolled over. For example, if I loan you $1 for one year, the methodology employed here would say that you made $1 in loans. If I loan you a dollar for a day, 365 days in a row, then this methodology would say that I made $365 in loans to you. Right. I have not looked at the details, but I am confident that never was there anywhere near $16T of loans outstanding at any one time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Why is this not big news? I know the correct answer to this 99.99% of the time. t I am confident that never was there anywhere near $16T of loans outstanding at any one time. I think Muck might be onto something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I think Muck might be onto something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeeR Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 ? I thought they weren't a federal agency but a private institution. Which is it? Anyone? Beuller? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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