The Fed Audit

[babsbunny]

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3

October 28th, 2011

July 21, 2011

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.

[Agony]

1. Double Recommendation Plus good for Sen. Sanders

and a BIG Flip Off to the Fed for CORRUPTION!

"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."

Not that this is news to many of us.

Cheerio!
Agony

[silverweb]

2. K&R

:kick"

[court jester]

3. +16 trillion

visualize one (1) trillion:



Double stacked pallets of $100 dollar bills.
Scale: The red thing on the left is a person.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

[slipslidingaway]

4. Federal Reserve Transparency Act

New bills in Congress

HR 459
S 202

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Transparency_Act

"...Support for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 was one of the issues raised as part of the nationwide 2009 Tea Party protests. During an episode of the Glenn Beck program which broadcast April 15 from a rally at the Alamo in San Antonio, Pat Gray interviewed a local supporter of the Transparency Act, drawing cheers from the crowd.<25>

Support for the bill has also come from those on the left outside of congress. In a letter to Chairman Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee, Ranking Member Spencer Bachus and its members, several progressives such as bloggers Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, "Tyler Durden" of Zero Hedge, author Naomi Klein, labor leaders President Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, the SEIU's President Andy Stern, the United Steelworkers's President Leo Gerard, economists Dean Baker, James K. Galbraith, Rob Johnson, and professors William K. Black, Thomas Ferguson, and L. Randall Wray, pushed for passage of the bill and against the adoption of the amendment proposed by Rep. Watt.<26>...

...Amendment to Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009 (HR 3996)On November 19, 2009, the Committee on Financial Services approved the Paul-Grayson amendment to the Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009 (H.R. 3996). The amendment includes many provisions of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, including removing GAO audit restrictions and allowing a more complete audit of the Federal Reserve, including reviewing various policies and agreements with foreign entities.<15><16> It was passed by in a 43-26 vote, with bipartisan support despite opposition from former supporter and Committee Chairman Barney Frank. The amendment was also opposed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others from the Obama administration.<15>

Frank declined to vote for the final amendment after proposed changes made by fellow Democrat Melvin Watt representing North Carolina's 12th congressional district, which encompasses most of Bank of America hometown Charlotte, were stripped out in favor of the amendment's original language by the amendment proposed by Paul and Grayson.<15> Watt's proposed version included provisions that allowed audits of the Fed's balance sheet, but not for the monetary policy.<17> Ryan Grim, a contributor for the left-leaning news blog The Huffington Post suggested Watt's amendment was an attempt to create less transparency than before at the Federal Reserve.<18>..."


Alan Grayson Discusses Ron Paul's HR 1207 And Auditing The Fed
http://dailybail.com/home/alan-grayson-discusses-ron-pauls-hr-1207-and-auditing-the-fe.html

"...Grayson's answer was immediate and succinct: "Capture." For those not up on regulatory theory, this refers to the notion that regulators become captive of the industries they regulate. Noting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spent $100 million on campaign contributions over the last 10 years, Grayson said: "The system is in some sense corrupt. A senator said the other day that Wall Street owns Washington, and while I might not go that far, you don't have the airlines ‘owning' the . There is a lot of influence that Wall Street has on the government, even the judicial branch." Indeed, Grayson could have cited the front-page story in today's Wall Street Journal, documenting the remarkable efficiency with which banking campaign contributions appear to have helped ease accounting rules that in turn helped the banks.

Grayson even hinted that there are powers in Washington that would like him and the Financial Services Committee to trim their investigations somewhat. Referring to a hearing scheduled for this afternoon about how Fannie and Freddie went awry, Grayson said: "We're getting instructions from on high saying, ‘Don't dwell on the past.'" Taleb later remarked that while Grayson had laudable views about the proper role of government, he was almost certainly "a little lonely" in Washington..."