Fed has pledged an amount equal to half the GDP to shiftless High Finance Welfare Queens

[marmar]

Fed Pledges Top $7.4 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit (Update1)

By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.

The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $2.8 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the only plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.

When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling for the Fed to be reined in.

“Whether it’s lending or spending, it’s tax dollars that are going out the window and we end up holding collateral we don’t know anything about,” said Congressman Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee. “The time has come that we consider what sort of limitations we should be placing on the Fed so that authority returns to elected officials as opposed to appointed ones.” .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=arEE1iClqDrk&refer=home

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. .

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[StreetKnowledge]

2. $7.4 TRILLION?!?!?!

Good God, are they TRYING to bankrupt America?! This is bordering on high treason!

Normally I wouldn't recommend violence, but somebody really needs to shoot Paulson. Seriously, they are bankrupting us all to pay off their buddies.

[lostnfound]

4. YES, they ARE trying to bankrupt America. Read The Shock Doctrine.

On the way out the door of some regimes, the rightwing/neoliberals put a massive debt onto the shoulders of their countries, complete with IMF-imposed 'austerity programs', that ensured that any populist movements that had managed to take over the reins of government would be completely hobbled in their attempts to implement economic change.

Bankrupting "America" is precisely what they have in mind.

[MadHound]

3. I wonder who will bail out the US when the government goes bankrupt?

We simply can't continue to hand out cash like this. We're borrowing more and more from China and elsewhere to fund this spending spree, and our credit rating is already starting to get shaky. Adding another 7.4 trillion to the mix will tip it over, our credit will be shot, and we will be screwed.

[charlie]

5. Produced?

As in actually produced in this country last year?

I'm sure the cost is much dearer than that, because our production figures generally include the magical paper wealth that recently went poof.