Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Bernie Sanders -major statement on how the Fed looted $16 Trillion to bail out banks (many foreign)

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » General Discussion Donate to DU
 
stockholmer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 02:39 AM
Original message
Bernie Sanders -major statement on how the Fed looted $16 Trillion to bail out banks (many foreign)
Edited on Mon Jul-25-11 03:01 AM by stockholmer
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3

The Fed Audit

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.

snip


GAO FULL REPORT
http://sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GAO%20Fed%20Investigation.pdf

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

Bernie's Bombshell

snip

If this hasn't raised your blood pressure high enough, how about clicking over to the official GAO report which suggest that "...opportunities exist to strengthen polices and processes to manage emergency assistance..."

A nice way of explaining we've been screwed again by the privately controlled not really Federal Reserve and it's about the most disgusting account of financial raping and pillage as you'll find.

Yet, Congress, on the corporate dole, especially with the growing "throw the bastards out" cries increasing around the country, is unlikely to do anything more than weasel and waffle. But, come to think of it, why am I not surprised? Gold star for Sanders for being forthright..bit he's got 99 colleagues left to work on....

Now to see how the financial universe REALLY works, couple in this next story...

TARP and the Great Circular Reference

We're all supposed to be happy as hell that banks are paying back their TARP money, right? All the hype and hoopla about what a grand and glorious thing this is just won't stop. Except according to this article here, http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/banks-pay-back-tarp-funds-borrowing-treasury-205658852.html the way theses banks have paid back the 'right pocket' is by borrowing from the left!

You got it: Take TARP money, they borrow more money from the Fed, then pay back TARP (cue the spin machine to rerun Happy Days) and while the public attention is distracted, they borrow from el Fed and pretend the situation is fixed. Ah, the foxes are still in the hen house just the same. But, I repeat myself too much. We need some financial Charmin to clean such bs happy talk up..

Depressions are like enemas for the rich and it may be getting on time for one to clean up the malinvestment, now being papered over with promissory notes which indenture our children and their children, too....

snip

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My take is simple:

Number one, this IS NOT a complete top to bottom audit of the Fed. They are still sitting on at least another $50 trillion of toxic debts (accrued since the horrific dismantling of Glass-Steagall in 1999 and the odious Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000) that have been swapped out off-balance-sheet by the major global banks via T-bill and other instrument exchanges plus other off shore-schemes, dark pools, and secret parking funds.

Number two, you either kill off the Fed and the rest of the systemic banking controllers' grips on any meaningful power (the Fed just needs to be ended, plain and simple, and all collaborators and shills who argue against this be damned), or they literally, quite literally, are going to kill you, in a thousand different ways, with a million different cuts of the blade.


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Sherman A1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 02:40 AM
Response to Original message
1. Thanks for Posting
Bernie is THE MAN!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
emilyg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 02:44 AM
Response to Original message
2. knr
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Marblehead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:20 AM
Response to Original message
3. biggest story of our time
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Selatius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:24 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Yeah, but if I were to watch the corporate press, I see more airtime given to Casey Anthony.
The news media has failed its duties.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:52 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. I'm sure they don't understand their duties to be the same as you and I do.
And so, they probably don't think they've failed at all.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
russspeakeasy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 08:36 AM
Response to Reply #4
15. It sells better.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
banned from Kos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:53 PM
Response to Reply #3
23. its not a "story" - its bullshit. Any liberal economist would pick this into
pieces. Why won't Krugman or DeLong cover it?

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Raksha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:30 AM
Response to Original message
5. K & R
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
indurancevile Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:31 AM
Response to Original message
6. but the us is running out of money - i read an op ed about it just the other day.
i think it was by robert samuelson or someone like that.

so where did the 16 trillion come from?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
quaker bill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:54 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. Thin air, literally
I heard the interview on NPR. Literally 4 people in cubicles keystroked and mouse clicked these trillions into existence. Presto change-o, the banker's crappy paper became our reliable paper. We took an equal amount of crappy paper off the books apparently at face value. Confidence in the system was restored.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
muriel_volestrangler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:51 AM
Response to Original message
7. Without the Fed, what kind of money system would you like?
Remember that bank crashes were more common before the Fed was established. You say it's "plan and simple" that it "just needs to be ended", but I think you need to describe how you would see banks running without the Fed. After all, all the other capitalist economies have central banks too.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
sulphurdunn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 07:14 AM
Response to Reply #7
11. Banking without the Fed
isn't the issue. Banking without regulation or risk is.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
banned from Kos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 07:44 AM
Response to Reply #7
12. OP is a goldbug Ron Paul fan
should answer everything right there.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
naaman fletcher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 12:47 PM
Response to Reply #7
16. I'm not sure I agree..
Bank crashes were more common, because there was no fed to bail them out. But, they ran every ten years or so. The banks today also do that every ten years or so, they just don't go under because they get bailed out.

The econonomic hit was the same, just how the cost was distributed is different.

I would note that the panics prior to the fed were all very short in duration. It is only since the fed that we had the great depression and these multi year things with no end in sight.

A monetary system without the fed would look like it did in the US before the fed... during which time our economy grew very rapidly.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ooglymoogly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #7
17. Don't need no stinkin fed. Bank deposit insurance is all that is needed
Insurance that banks are required to have to protect depositors. The rest is just so much flym flam to steal the national product and decide who is rich and who isn't and to boom and bust the system for fun and profit; hostile takeovers and what ever other Machiavellian scheme the richest 400 dream up to steal from us AND HOARD 90 PERCENT OF THIS COUNTRIES WEALTH.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
banned from Kos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 03:33 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. Alan Greenspan ruined the Fed for many liberals
with his idiotic "markets self correct" bullshit and the trouble it got us into.

Its like hating the Supreme Court because of Scalia and Thomas.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Kolesar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 05:55 AM
Response to Original message
10. How much has the public lost on that small-business-lending-program Daniel Gross cited?
Not 16 trillion dollars
It's zero

There are millions of business school graduates in the country and a stunning amount of financial ignorance.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Eljo_Don Donating Member (43 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 08:17 AM
Response to Original message
13. bail outs silly Questions
Silly Questions

"Bernie Sanders -major statement on how the Fed looted $16 Trillion to bail out banks (many foreign)"
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/stockholmer/4

FED used $16 trillion to bail out banks, and have $50 trillion waiting for more bail outs. The national debt is around $14 trillions.
Why the FED didn't bailed our the government? Why the FED don't use the $50 trillion it has to bail out the government NOW?
This way the government budget will be balanced without no cuts or tax raise.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
banned from Kos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 08:25 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. the $16 trillion number is bogus -- according to the same report
a $10 billion one-week short-term LOAN - rolled over (renewed) weekly for ten weeks was $100 billion in loans.

In accounting terms this is understandable but it gives the appearance of a ridiculously high number.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ooglymoogly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #14
20. Ahh the herculean task of sweeping trillions in malfeasance under the rug
Edited on Mon Jul-25-11 03:38 PM by ooglymoogly
must bring on a sweat. But then with enough site monitors, maybe not.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
banned from Kos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 05:58 PM
Response to Reply #20
24. what evidence of "malfeasance" do you have, Fife?
the "audit" didn't find any.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ooglymoogly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 11:54 PM
Response to Reply #24
25. Of course they did not...they never do. Can you really be this naive.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
banned from Kos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-26-11 05:07 PM
Response to Reply #25
31. oh sure! There is a $16 trillion theft and only you and Bernie are on to it.
Grow up, Fife.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ooglymoogly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 03:32 PM
Response to Original message
18. Was there any doubt and I bet 16 trillion is just the tip of the iceberg.
Which might just give an inkling of how and why the once richest country in the history of the world is now bankrupt and certain folks are running around with and hording hundreds of billions and even trillions in offshore accounts.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Remember Me Donating Member (730 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:41 PM
Response to Original message
21. Not socialism for the rich, it's FASCISM
When government is of, by and for corporations, not people, it's for damn sure not democracy, or even a democratic republic. It's fascism, American style.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
wildbilln864 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-25-11 04:46 PM
Response to Original message
22. *************k & freakin r! nt
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
defendandprotect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-26-11 01:59 AM
Response to Original message
26. Thank you -- back tomorrow to read more --
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MilesColtrane Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-26-11 02:56 AM
Response to Original message
27. $909 billion is still due.
The rest of the $16 trillion has been repaid.

The facts are stark enough. Let's not tip over into gibbering, slobbering hyperbole.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
csziggy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-26-11 04:44 AM
Response to Original message
28. K&R
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Jefferson23 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-26-11 10:00 AM
Response to Original message
29. Excellent OP. It is disgraceful the direction we continue to go. K&R
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-26-11 04:59 PM
Response to Original message
30. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Mon May 06th 2024, 08:07 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » General Discussion Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC