[b]Fed secretly handed out $8 trillion[/b]
[release]We knew the last bailout from the Federal Reserve was pretty big, but not until now did we have statistics on the actually tally. If you thought that the $700 billion bailout for TARP was big, get a load of this.
Just exactly how big was the Federal Reserve’s bailout of the banks between the years of 2008 and 2010? Thanks to a Federal Request of Information Act gone fulfilled, America now knows the truth behind a colossal cover-up: almost $8 trillion.
Ever since the Fed stepped in to bail out the biggest banks in the country, Ben Bernanke and company have gone to great lengths to keep the exact details of the transactions a secret, citing that the truth would cause concern for the world financial crisis far greater than what was already at hand, saying in particular that investors would step away from the “too big to fail” banks that were benefiting from the bailout. And while Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke went on the record to call the bailouts to even the most “sound institutions” only “marginal,” details of the FOIA request obtained by Bloomberg News now reveals that the Federal Reserve spent nearly half of the entire production output of the US during that span of less than two years — the biggest bailout in the country’s history — while going to great lengths to keep Congress and the American people in the dark.
By March of 2009, the Fed had already dished out $7.77 trillion to save the US financial system, dwarfing other assistance programs several times over. As the financial sector was on the brink of collapse, neither the Fed nor the banks involved came clean with the truth, instead lying through their teeth to keep the total facts a mystery. Until now.
While the banks kept the bailout a secret from Congress, they lobbied to the Legislative Branch to imply more lax governmental regulations on the industry, something that would haven arguably been near impossible had the truth surfaced at the time.
The website Naked Capitalism explains it pretty clearly in not so many words: “The bottom line is everybody close to the process lied like crazy.”
On November 26, 2008, Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis told shareholders that he ran “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” On that very day, BofA was indebted to the Fed something to the tune of nearly $90 billion. Less than two weeks later, the Federal Reserve blew $1.2 trillion total in a single day to bail out the breaking financial institutions.
All the while, of course, banks were borrowing loans at interest rates of as low as 0.01 percent. “No one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates,” writes Bloomberg now.
That’s not the worst part, either. As the Fed continues to operate without oversight from the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, further bailouts are guaranteed to keep being generated at the cost of the American taxpayer while a recession still seems imminent — if not already occurring. Critics including presidential hopeful Congressman Ron Paul have lobbied to abolish the Federal Reserve once and for all. Could the next president help make that dream a reality? In the meantime, don’t be surprised if billions get borrowed at America’s expense minute by minute.[/release]
Source:
[url]https://rt.com/usa/news/fed-trillion-reserve-bailout-401/[/url]
Are you kidding me? Jeezus
Could you really have the heart to screw over your own country? Is more money really going to bring you happiness? With desires and expectations this high, you're only going to live in a world of disappointment...
[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mdy8FAR-FeA/SbTm9K7xM-I/AAAAAAAAAzU/PlbcdJreoTI/s400/1+Trillion.jpg[/img]
8 of those stacks, we can build a money stair to the moon
[QUOTE=_Chewgum;33486843][img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mdy8FAR-FeA/SbTm9K7xM-I/AAAAAAAAAzU/PlbcdJreoTI/s400/1+Trillion.jpg[/img]
8 of those stacks, we can build a money stair to the moon[/QUOTE]
Except we couldn't, and that's the problem, the money, for all intensive purposes, doesn't exist. Its made out of nothing.
Not so secret anymore.
America!
[url]http://xkcd.com/980/huge/[/url]
Just to give a perspective, that money given out would be equal to almost 10% of the entire world's liquid assets ($77 trillion), and almost the total value of all gold ever mined ($9.12 trillion).
Looking at it like makes my head spin. No one person (or small group) should have immediate access to that much money.
I have only one thing to say:
WHAT THE FUCK!! Who the hell though that was a smart thing to-do?
Sweet jesus, there's a reason the global economy is pretty fucked, and that doesn't make it any better.
Just to throw out another scale reminder- Take every billionaire on the planet together and put them in a box. That box is only worth [URL="http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires"]$4.5 trillion USD.[/URL]
This shit is fucking insane.
This made me want to listen to this song (One Trillion Dollars by Anti-Flag), now just multiply it by eight. I just keep getting madder and madder at the whole countries situation, which I guess is a good thing as it keeps me motivated to do something... Power to the People, right?
[video=youtube;_HcJRYQnnlc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HcJRYQnnlc[/video]
Wowzers. Like fuck me that is a lot. A big amount. I though having enough for lunch and a snickers is a fair ammount of money but thats just peanuts to this.
Sounds like an incredibly bright future for the entire world to me!
:saddowns:
They gave it all to OWS protestors.
Keeps the world spinning and shit.
They're actually doing a different protest now. It's about a huge bounced check.
I'm just going to leave this here. It's a video I found in one of the Mass Debate threads.
[video=youtube;ZPWH5TlbloU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU[/video]
Shouldn't this cause the US dollar to spin out of control and de-value like there's no tomorrow?
Soooo.... are we going to start regulating capitalism a little bit more now, or what?
[QUOTE=The fox;33489021]Shouldn't this cause the US dollar to spin out of control and de-value like there's no tomorrow?[/QUOTE]
Well when it crashes, it's gonna do it [B]BIG TIME[/B]
[editline]29th November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=MrEndangered;33489038]Soooo.... are we going to start regulating capitalism a little bit more now, or what?[/QUOTE]
but that's [B]SOCIALISM!![/B]
[QUOTE=The fox;33489021]Shouldn't this cause the US dollar to spin out of control and de-value like there's no tomorrow?[/QUOTE]
Doubtful. There are still too many government and institutions that rely on the dollar for trading. This news may just weaken it's hold on world currency, but not break it. The weak Euro means there is no other major currency to take over - unless the Yuan gets what it wants, and so there won't be a huge crash.
So for now, the US dollar probably won't fluctuate much - since the fact they've spent all that money doesn't means it's vanished.
If only currency actually represented something real and tangible in the physical world and wasn't just created out of thin air
I'm sitting here trying to think of all the things you could do with eight trillion dollars, and "bailing out banks" is extremely low on my list.
For that kind of money, you could completely rebuild huge parts of the country. Hell, you could found an entirely [I]new[/I] country.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;33490129]I'm sitting here trying to think of all the things you could do with eight trillion dollars, and "bailing out banks" is extremely low on my list.
For that kind of money, you could completely rebuild huge parts of the country. Hell, you could found an entirely [I]new[/I] country.[/QUOTE]
You could halve the debt!
[QUOTE=Jookia;33490405]You could halve the debt![/QUOTE]
Well, that seems a bit like paying credit card bills with another credit card.
If you were going to pour a huge amount of money into the economy, wouldn't addressing the root causes of poverty, in order to inspire greater economic growth, be a much better use of funds? Every school in the country could be completely retrofitted with contemporary educational technology, with enough left over to completely overhaul the infrastructure of dozens of cities and towns.
It seems like that would have much more beneficial long-term effects than simply keeping several major banks afloat.
Eh, the people at the Fed have PhDs in Economics. I trust they know what they're doing more than Congress does, considering they're all pretty much lawyers, and lawyers are scummy.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;33490559]Well, that seems a bit like paying credit card bills with another credit card.
If you were going to pour a huge amount of money into the economy, wouldn't addressing the root causes of poverty, in order to inspire greater economic growth, be a much better use of funds? Every school in the country could be completely retrofitted with contemporary educational technology, with enough left over to completely overhaul the infrastructure of dozens of cities and towns.
It seems like that would have much more beneficial long-term effects than simply keeping several major banks afloat.[/QUOTE]
The banks should fail if they do poor business IMO, that's what FDIC insurance is for (to protect assets of the bank's members). The whole movement of "pure capitalism" from some sides is funny since those pure capitalists are also the ones asking for government assistance.
Isn't Fractional Reserve Banking awesome?
Why does no one realize that "too big to fail" has a double meaning
It was expected that they were so large they COULD not fail
In the event that they did fail it would immediately cause an depression / economic collapse
There is a reason the banks were bailed out but yeah it's scary that they did THIS. Want to regulate capitalism? Make sure "too big to fail" doesn't fucking happen.
How does our government continue to function with these idiots in charge?
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