The Government gave $16 trillion to the banks. And nobody else is talking about it.

[BigBearJohn]

Received a letter of Alan Grayson. Here's part of it:

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that our Government has handed out $16 trillion to the banks.

Let me repeat that, in case you didn’t hear me the first time. The GAO says that our Government HAS HANDED OUT $16 TRILLION TO THE BANKS.

That little gem appears on Page 131 of GAO Report No. GAO-11-696. A report issued two months ago. A report that somehow seems to have eluded the attention of virtually every network, every major newspaper, and every news show.

How much is $16 trillion? That is an amount equal to more than $50,000 for every man, woman and child in America. That’s more than every penny that every American earns in a year. That’s an amount equal to almost a third of our national net worth -- the value of every home, car, personal belonging, business, bank account, stock, bond, piece of land, book, tree, chandelier, and everything else anyone owns in America. That’s an amount greater than our entire national debt, accumulated over the course of two centuries.

Think about it. Think about what that means.
Courage,
Alan Grayson

[kentuck]

1. kick

good info

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. Anyone have a link to the actual GAO report?

Not that I don't trust Alan Grayson, but that mind-boggling statement, in its true context, is something I have to see with my own eyes. If true, this is the story of the decade.

[PeaceNikki]

5. He said it's on "Page 131 of GAO Report No. GAO-11-696"

I have not looked it up.

[PeaceNikki]

9. Link

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf

As was said below, it appears that $ was loaned, not 'given'. And interest earned on it. A bit misleading.

[dmallind]

11. Not only loans, but loans multiplied by time

Table 8 aggregates total dollar
transaction amounts by adding the total dollar amount of all loans but
does not adjust these amounts to reflect differences across programs in
the term over which loans were outstanding. For example, an overnight
PDCF loan of $10 billion that was renewed daily at the same level for 30
business days would result in an aggregate amount borrowed of $300
billion although the institution, in effect, borrowed only $10 billion

Pg 130.

Table 9 has much more realistic term adjusted numbers.

[Ikonoklast]

15. Grayson is being disingenuous on this.

He knows it's the same money lent overnight, over and over again.

This is one reason I don't particularly care for him, he distorts the truth to support a position.


And people here aren't doing themselves any favors by accepting what he says at face value.

Educate yourselves on the Fed, don't just take anyone's word as gospel.

[SomethingFishy]

24. So then tell me. What is the real amount and how high

should that amount go before I get angry about it? Say Grayson is being "disingenuous" and the amount is really only 10% of what he claims. 1.6 trillion. Is that enough for me to be angry about?

[girl gone mad]

18. You need to dig a little deeper.

It was over 400 billion outstanding for more than 6 months. That's not an aggregated total, that's actual dollar amount that the government was on the hook for.

Do you want to talk about how these insolvent banks were able to recapitalize enough for the government to wind down TAF? Let's talk about it. Where did the money come from?

[dmallind]

20. 400B, 16T? Yeah you're right. Same kind of problem - so OK to use either figure. Got it. nt

[girl gone mad]

22. It's definitely not OK to pretend that it was only $10 Billion...

lent over and over again.

That's a bogus claim.

[PeaceNikki]

3. Full text on his FB page - link here:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/alan-grayson/wheres-your-50000/275913279098325

[Uben]

4. Gave or loaned?

I thought I read where the government is making billions in interst off of the loans and most of it has already been paid back. Am I wrong? It's really important we get the facts straight or we are no better than they are.

[banned from Kos]

6. Loaned. And if you rolled a $1 billion loan over for a full year

its counted as $12 billion in loans.

Its very misleading.

On purpose. Thus why media economists don't use this bullshit number.

[unblock]

10. worse than that -- many of the loans were overnight loans!

i'd prefer accurate numbers, especially if he's going to drive home the point by giving people a feel as to how big the number actually is.

nevertheless, there's no doubt that the government helped the banks out considerably, and helped ordinary people almost not at all, and that point should not be lost.

[theophilus]

14. Well said! n/t

[Uben]

13. Sensationalism. I don't stoop to FOX NEWS levels

...and Grayson shouldn't either. Tell the truth, straight up, or stay silent. Lies do not help our cause.

[girl gone mad]

16. You're wrong.

Over one and a half trillion is outstanding as of last month.

[SOS]

21. Yes, $1.54 trillion outstanding as of July 2011

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Wall_Street_Bailout_Cost

Every single American could have received a bail out check for $5,133 for this amount.

[mod mom]

7. Is this the next bail out that Matt Taibbi is talking about here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/attorneys-general-settlement-the-next-big-bank-bailout-20111005

New bailout money?

[indepat]

8. But didn't the gubment make money on TARP so surely it will make money on the

entire $16 trillion? Right? Surely none of $16 trillion was unsecured and all was fully collateralized and surely all the collateral was/is gilt-edged. :patriot:

[valerief]

12. Bernie Sanders talks about it on every show he's on. nt

[EdMaven]

17. But there's not enough money for Social Security (about 600 billion a year, all of it paid

by workers).

wow.

[BelgianMadCow]

19. Yes, this is the alfa and omega - dwarfs any other discussion - and trillions in EU too

and people simply don't know - or better, can't fathom the numbers.

A week ago a EU official mentioned in passing 4 trillion has been used in bailouts etc since 2008, here in Europe.

I stood on a corner the other day trying to get people to think about it. It's hard.

Bookmarked
regards
bmc

[IndyPragmatist]

23. NOT TRUE! The government did not loan 16T, it was the Federal Reserve that did

This is why I agree with the Ron Paul folks about ending the fed. They risked our nation 3 years ago. If those loans failed, we would have fallen into such poverty that we would long for the conditions that we are now experiencing.

There is no excuse for a private entity to risk the livelihood of an entire nation without the consent of the people. We really do need to end the Fed, or at least, get some control over it.