9 Trillion Dollars Missing From Federal Reserve
skep...@aol.com
By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is
completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the
financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90
percent of the nation’s home mortgages.
The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two
years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this
week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It
would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House
approved last month.
Only the stimulus bill to be approved this week, the $700 billion
Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion
in tax cuts and rebates enacted in 2008 have been voted on by
lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion is in lending programs and
guarantees, almost all under the Fed and FDIC. Recipients’ names have
not been disclosed.
“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any
time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North
Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what
went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose.
How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”
Financial Rescue
The pledges, amounting to almost two-thirds of the value of everything
produced in the U.S. last year, are intended to rescue the financial
system after the credit markets seized up about 18 months ago. The
promises are composed of about $1 trillion in stimulus packages,
around $3 trillion in lending and spending and $5.7 trillion in
agreements to provide aid. The total already tapped has decreased
about 1 percent since November, mostly because foreign central banks
are using fewer dollars in currency-exchange agreements called swaps.
Federal Reserve lending to banks peaked at a record $2.3 trillion in
December, dropping to $1.83 trillion by last week. The Fed balance
sheet is still more than double the $880 billion it was in the week
before Sept. 17 when it agreed to accept lower-quality collateral.
The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $14.5
trillion, or 33 percent, of the value of the world’s companies since
Sept. 15; brought down Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings
Inc.; and led to the takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. by Bank of
America Corp.
The $9.7 trillion in pledges would be enough to send a $1,430 check to
every man, woman and child alive in the world. It’s 13 times what the
U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to
Congressional Budget Office data, and is almost enough to pay off
every home mortgage loan in the U.S., calculated at $10.5 trillion by
the Federal Reserve.
‘All the Stops’
“The Fed, Treasury and FDIC are pulling out all the stops to stop any
widespread systemic damage to the economy,” said Dana Johnson, chief
economist for Comerica Inc. in Dallas and a former senior economist at
the central bank. “The federal government is on the hook for an awful
lot of money but I think it’s needed to help the financial system
recover.”
Bloomberg News tabulated data from the Fed, Treasury and FDIC and
interviewed regulators, economists and academic researchers to gauge
the full extent of the government’s rescue effort.
Commitments may expand again soon. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
postponed until tomorrow an announcement that may invite private
investment as a way to clear toxic debt from bank balance sheets.
Measures that have been settled include a new round of injections of
taxpayer funds into banks, targeted at those identified by regulators
as most in need of additional capital, people briefed on the matter
said.
Program Delay
The government is already backing $301 billion of Citigroup Inc.
securities and another $118 billion from Bank of America. The
government hasn’t yet paid out on any of the guarantees.
The Fed said Friday that it is delaying the start a $200 billion
program called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or
TALF, to revive the market for securities based on consumer loans such
as credit-card, auto and student borrowings.
Most of the spending programs are run out of the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York, where Geithner served as president. He was sworn in as
Treasury secretary on Jan. 26.
When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke and then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the
need for transparency and oversight. The Federal Reserve so far is
refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are
taking in return. Collateral is an asset pledged by a borrower in the
event a loan payment isn’t made.
Fed Sued
Bloomberg requested details of Fed lending under the Freedom of
Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit against the central bank
Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure of borrower banks and their
collateral. Arguments in the suit may be heard as soon as this month,
according to the court docket. Bloomberg asked the Treasury in an FOIA
request Jan. 28 for a detailed list of the securities it planned to
guarantee for Citigroup and Bank of America. Bloomberg hasn’t received
a response to the request.
The Bloomberg lawsuit is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern
District of New York (Manhattan).
For Related News and Information:
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Pittman in New York at
mpit...@bloomberg.net ; Bob Ivry in New York at
bi...@bloomberg.net .
To contact the editors responsible for this story: William Glasgall in
New York at wgla...@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: February 9, 2009 12:43 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok
9 Trillion Dollars Missing from Federal Reserve
par grtv
This is a high quality version of the Financial Services Subcommittee
on Oversight and Investigations hearing of May 5, 2009.
Rep. Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the
trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it
went, and the trillions of off balance sheet obligations. Inspector
General Elizabeth Coleman responds that the IG does not know and is
not tracking where this money is.
More information on Alan Grayson's sources:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok
Website of the Federal Reserve Office of the Inspector General:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/oig/
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/fr/2011/02/9-trillion-dollars-missing-federal-reserve
Pepsi
skep...@aol.com
> Did anyone check George Bush's wallet when he left?
This song is gonna hurt:
The New Robin Hood (Obama's Song)
www.youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xcognPgJRM&feature=player_embedded
Brad Guth
GW Bush and Dick Cheney were too busy tossing those compacted bricks
of our hard earned loot around in Iraq, all because their mission had
been accomplished. At least now their Big Energy cabals could
systematically gouge us without them crazy Muslims getting any part of
the action, so apparently it didn't matter how many bricks of our loot
was MIA.
http://translate.google.com/#
Brad Guth, Brad_Guth, Brad.Guth, BradGuth, BG / “Guth Usenet”
John Walsh
<skep...@aol.com> wrote:
[bullshit clipped]
>9 Trillion Dollars Missing from Federal Reserve
>par grtv
>This is a high quality version of the Financial Services Subcommittee
>on Oversight and Investigations hearing of May 5, 2009.
>Rep. Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the
>trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it
>went, and the trillions of off balance sheet obligations. Inspector
>General Elizabeth Coleman responds that the IG does not know and is
>not tracking where this money is.
>More information on Alan Grayson's sources:
>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok
>Website of the Federal Reserve Office of the Inspector General:
>http://www.federalreserve.gov/oig/
>http://tv.globalresearch.ca/fr/2011/02/9-trillion-dollars-missing-federal-reserve
That compares favorably with the 10 million brain cells that you're
missing.
Rocky
"Pepsi" <Pe...@coke.com> wrote in message
news:svwep.35504$%M7.1...@newsfe21.iad...
> Did anyone check George Bush's wallet when he left?
Why, Bush probably had it wired to him anyway.
