Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B

[tabatha]

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html

This is what OWS is about.

NickKristof Nicholas Kristof
So troubled banks get subsidized loans that earn them $13 billion profit. But homeowners in trouble get stiffed?
2 hours ago

NickKristof Nicholas Kristof
Wow. Secret low-interest loans from the Fed rescued banks & brought them $13 billion in profits! bloom.bg/srzSNH
2 hours ago

[dkf]

1. The thing is you can't tell who needed the loans and who was taking advantage of it.

Some banks were simply exploiting the super low rates.

In retrospect maybe that was the point, to obscure who the almost dead banks are.

[Quantess]

2. K & R

Disgusting!