Secret records of US bank bailout released over howls of protest

[Ishtar]

From Boing Boing via the Awl

Bloomberg has won a lengthy Freedom of Inforn battle to get the details of a secretive, no-strings-attached multi-trillion-dollar payout from the Bush administration (continued by the Obama administration) to banks, the details of which were not available to Congress. The documents make it clear that the banks' posture that they were only borrowing the money to help the government (JP Morgan said it borrowed "at the request of the Federal Reserve to help motivate others to use the system") were purest refined BS. Morgan for example, had borrowed twice its cash holdings.

The Fed, headed by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, argued that revealing borrower details would create a stigma -- investors and counterparties would shun firms that used the central bank as lender of last resort -- and that needy institutions would be reluctant to borrow in the next crisis. Clearing House Association fought Bloomberg’s lawsuit up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the banks’ appeal in March 2011.

The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.

“TARP at least had some strings attached,” says Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, referring to the program’s executive-pay ceiling. “With the Fed programs, there was nothing...”

Lawmakers knew none of this.

They had no clue that one bank, New York-based Morgan Stanley (MS), took $107 billion in Fed loans in September 2008, enough to pay off one-tenth of the country’s delinquent mortgages. The firm’s peak borrowing occurred the same day Congress rejected the proposed TARP bill, triggering the biggest point drop ever in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (INDU) The bill later passed, and Morgan Stanley got $10 billion of TARP funds, though Paulson said only “healthy institutions” were eligible.

[KosmicKat]

Posted by Ishtar (here)
The documents make it clear that the banks' posture that they were only borrowing the money to help the government (JP Morgan said it borrowed "at the request of the Federal Reserve to help motivate others to use the system") were purest refined BS.

Which is so unfair to bulls (although it does put a whole new spin on a "bullish" market). Not even bear crap smells this bad!

[Ishtar]

Posted by KosmicKat (here)

Posted by Ishtar (here)
The documents make it clear that the banks' posture that they were only borrowing the money to help the government (JP Morgan said it borrowed "at the request of the Federal Reserve to help motivate others to use the system") were purest refined BS.

Which is so unfair to bulls (although it does put a whole new spin on a "bullish" market). Not even bear crap smells this bad!

Well, how ever it honks, it looks like it's hit the fan now!

[Unified Serenity]

And guess what? We won't do a darn thing about it. We have known we bailed out foreign banks. FOREIGN banks with OUR money while our own people are getting kicked out of their homes, businesses can't function because loans are not available, hiring is at a standstill, college grads can't get jobs, but damn, we can loan out over 7 TRILLION dollars! I bet it's way more than that, but hell we have known about this garbage and done nothing to fix it for our own people. No, we just bailed out AIG and Banks. The Fed needs to be shut down, dismantled, and the people there put on trial for treason.

[Lord Sidious]

Posted by Unified Serenity (here)
And guess what? We won't do a darn thing about it. We have known we bailed out foreign banks. FOREIGN banks with OUR money while our own people are getting kicked out of their homes, businesses can't function because loans are not available, hiring is at a standstill, college grads can't get jobs, but damn, we can loan out over 7 TRILLION dollars! I bet it's way more than that, but hell we have known about this garbage and done nothing to fix it for our own people. No, we just bailed out AIG and Banks. The Fed needs to be shut down, dismantled, and the people there put on trial for treason.

Unfortunately, you are right.
The people will just go on with their lives.

[Ishtar]

People aren't ready to believe the reality of what's been happening to them and what's been done to them. I don't know what can change that.

[aranuk]

David Ice travels around the world spreading the message which IMHO helps somewhat. I manage in my own small way to get the information to my friends. Mind you what they do with the information I have no idea. Maybe one or two of them tell somebody else. There are also millions watching Alex Jones and listening to Coast to Coast. And there are always around 900 people reading these posts of ours.

Stan

PS I forgot to mention Lord Sid is on his way too!

[Lord Sidious]

Posted by Ishtar (here)
People aren't ready to believe the reality of what's been happening to them and what's been done to them. I don't know what can change that.

Necessity.
When it hits home for them, then they will believe.

[jp11]

I've been watching the national news for info on this since I first read about it yesterday. Still nothing. But it did make it to Huffingtonpost and RawStory today.

Most of the people I work with are so damn busy with their lives, both husband and wife work, children at home to take care of, etc. they don't have time to keep informed. I would guess that if they do hear about it either don't know what to do or think their voice wouldn't really make a difference.

And I believe it's getting out there and we, each of us reading it here, are creating an energy wave... that can't...won't be stopped!

[Alfa]

Bloomberg link, from where the article story was based.
Enjoy!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1...in-income.html

[Connecting with Sauce]

The only way is to make sure you are prepared really... sort yourself out...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tj2s6vzErqY

Some are slowly waking up ... I was on the phone to a guy at HSBC (my bank) and gave him a couple of links to watch "Thrive" and the one above... I'm in another large corporation and although I don't enjoy the work so much... I do enjoy planting seeds and hopefully something can grow from the lowest levels... The only way the planet will change is from within...

[toad]

I think most americans want to remain oblivious to this kind of thing, they dont want to know the truth, cause they know they will be irate if its true. The manipulation and the way they can do things via the fed is just funny in some sad way. For instance the way Obama claims he wont bail out the EU banks with US tax payer money, however the fed will just print out money to buy EU bonds to keep them afloat, but in a way it almost does more harm then good.