Government: "We lied: we're another 9 trillion in debt." - Polidicks

[URL]http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/news/economy/fed_reserve_data_release/[/URL] [quote] NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Reserve made $9 trillion in overnight loans to major banks and Wall Street firms during the financial crisis, according to newly revealed data released Wednesday. The loans were made through a special loan program set up by the Fed in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse in March 2008 to keep the nation's bond markets trading normally. The amount of cash being pumped out to the financial giants was not previously disclosed. All the loans were backed by collateral and all were paid back with a very low interest rate to the Fed -- an annual rate of between 0.5% to 3.5%. Still, the total amount was a surprise, even to some who had followed the Fed's rescue efforts closely. "That's a real number, even for the Fed," said FusionIQ's Barry Ritholtz, author of the book "Bailout Nation." While the fact that the markets were in trouble was already well known, he said the amount of help they needed is still surprising. "It makes it very clear this was a very serious, very unusual situation," he said. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who had authored the provision of the financial reform law that required Wednesday's disclosure, called the data that was released incredible and jaw-dropping. "The $700 billion Wall Street bailout turned out to be pocket change compared to trillions and trillions of dollars in near zero interest loans and other financial arrangements that the Federal Reserve doled out to every major financial institution," Sanders said. He said that even if the Fed was right to make the loans to keep the economy from toppling into a depression, it should have made stronger demands that the banks help American consumers and small businesses. "They may have repaid their loans, but that's not good enough," he said. "It's clear the demands the Fed made were not enough." The Wall Street firm that received the most assistance was Merrill Lynch, which received $2.1 trillion, spread across 226 loans. The firm did not survive the crisis as an independent company, and was purchased by Bank of America ([URL="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=BAC&source=story_quote_link"]BAC[/URL], [URL="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/snapshots/2580.html?source=story_f500_link"]Fortune 500[/URL]) just as Lehman Brothers was failing. Citigroup ([URL="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=C&source=story_quote_link"]C[/URL], [URL="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/snapshots/2927.html?source=story_f500_link"]Fortune 500[/URL]), which ended up with a majority of its shares owned by the Treasury Department due to a separate federal bailout, was No. 2 on the list with 279 loans totaling $2 trillion. Morgan Stanley ([URL="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=MS&source=story_quote_link"]MS[/URL], [URL="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/snapshots/3515.html?source=story_f500_link"]Fortune 500[/URL]) was third with $1.9 trillion coming from 212 loans. "As we have previously disclosed, Morgan Stanley utilized some of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending facilities during a time of immense financial turmoil throughout the banking sector and the broader market," Morgan Stanley said in a statement Wednesday. "The Fed's actions were timely and critical, and we commend them for providing liquidity and stabilizing the financial system during that period.'' The largest single loan was by Barclays Capital, which borrowed $47.9 billion on Sept. 18, 2008, in the days after the Lehman bankruptcy. The loan financed Barclays' purchase of Lehman's remaining assets. Some Wall Street firms disputed the way the Fed reported the numbers. An executive from one of the firms said that many of the overnight loans were rolled over for days at a time, and that each day it was counted as a new loan. "It's being double, triple, quadruple counted in some cases," said the executive. [URL="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2010/11/30/does-wikileaks-really-threaten-the-banks/?iid=EL"]Can our opinion of banks get any worse?[/URL] Not all the major banks needed much help from the Fed. JPMorgan Chase ([URL="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=JPM&source=story_quote_link"]JPM[/URL], [URL="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/snapshots/2608.html?source=story_f500_link"]Fortune 500[/URL]) received only three loans from this program for a total of $3 billion. The last loan was made under the program in May 2009, and the program, known as the primary dealer credit facility, was officially discontinued in February of this year.[/quote]Sounds familiar though. May be old news.

woah [editline]1st December 2010[/editline] that's a lot of zeroes

they forgot to carry the 1

Yes but it's in loans to banks.

Title should have been "US Government:..." since not everyone on FP lives in 'merica. Still knew it was them before i clicked the thread.

[QUOTE=Walrus.;26435721]Title should have been "US Government:..." since not everyone on FP lives in 'merica. Still knew it was them before i clicked the thread.[/QUOTE] I'm sure you are very offended.

Can we just borrow 1 Googol of cash?

[QUOTE=Explosions;26435770]I'm sure you are very offended.[/QUOTE] Just saying that "Government" is universal, title is a bit of a cliffhanger, and why would i be offended?

Just imagine all the porn and drugs you could buy with that. :allears:

I am unsurprisingly unsurprised. Another massive amount of money that will disappear into the bonuses of company CEOs. [QUOTE=superdinoman;26435833]Just imagine all the porn and drugs you could buy with that. :allears:[/QUOTE] Or you could do something useful and beneficial by buying and/or rebuilding industry and manufacturing.

We should multiply the new 9 trillion with the old debt. Then we'd be rich.

you know this doesn't surprise me

Take resources from africa Pay back some of the debt

Governments, lying? That never happens :rolleyes:

My countries government is better than North Korea's government. At corruption.

[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;26435866] Or you could do something useful and beneficial by buying and/or rebuilding industry and manufacturing.[/QUOTE] Or buy porn, drugs, and all the beautiful people in the world to sex with.

[QUOTE=Roof;26436001]My countries government is better than North Korea's government. At corruption.[/QUOTE] We're also like a good few thousands times bigger then them. (population wise)

[QUOTE=superdinoman;26436019]Or buy porn, drugs, and all the beautiful people in the world to sex with.[/QUOTE] Or those people could be employed in manufacturing facilities. The money spent on porn and drugs allocated to improving infrastructure and utilities.

Well ehm. I can't wait until some one wants the loans payed back.

[QUOTE=Roof;26436001]My countries government is better than North Korea's government. At corruption.[/QUOTE] Yeah keep thinking that.

[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;26436101]Or those people could be employed in manufacturing facilities. The money spent on porn and drugs allocated to improving infrastructure and utilities.[/QUOTE] Nah just porn, sex, and drugs. All the money would be spent on the ever expanding high profiting industries.

The last figure I saw on America's debt was pretty much unfathomable to me anyway. 9 trillion dollars is so much fucking money to not have.

[QUOTE=superdinoman;26436192]Nah just porn, sex, and drugs. All the money would be spent on the ever expanding high profiting industries.[/QUOTE] You can start investing in your own empire, an empire that can be self-sufficient in sex n' porn.

I read the title and was like "PLEASE DON'T BE UK PLEASE DON'T BE UK"

Thread title is wrong, as it says all the loans were paid back at low interest. So we are the same amount in debt, a projected 3.x Trillion dollars, not 12.x Trillion...

Government's Fault.

Just remember, money doesn't exist. It is imaginary, a creation of man. A fictional device with no pre-determined value, and upon which the entire world's actions are determined.

I wonder how much more money borrowing will be done before the value of a single US Dollar is less than a cent.

[QUOTE=EvilShadow777;26436410]I wonder how much more money borrowing will be done before the value of a single US Dollar is less than a cent.[/QUOTE] Since a cent is always 1/100th of a dollar, never.

[QUOTE=Ridge;26436421]Since a cent is always 1/100th of a dollar, never.[/QUOTE] Let me rephrase that: When it's worth less than a cent is currently worth.