Posted on 07/29/2011 11:12:45 AM PDT by 92nina
...Buried on page 131 of their 266 page report was the information officials were so eager to hide from the taxpaying public. As Americans struggled to make ends meet in the midst of financial meltdown, the Federal Reserve was shipping trillions of dollars overseas to foreign banks. In one year, Fed officials offered indiscriminate loans of $16 trillion to a host of European banks, as well as Wall Street titans like CitiGroup, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. The GAO found that 65 percent of those “emergency loan” handouts went to foreign companies and banks. On behalf of American taxpayers, the Federal Reserve bailed out not only the risky behavior of America’s banking industry, but Europe’s as well.
It’s no wonder Fed officials have resisted transparency reforms so ardently. If they didn’t blink at sending trillions of dollars overseas, what other risky decisions have they made behind closed doors? The GAO’s audit only extended to the Fed’s emergency programs and the bulk of the Fed’s policies remain closed to the public. The fact that even a limited search resulted in such shocking revelations is further evidence that a transparent audit of the Fed, without any special exemptions, is the only way to truly discover what reckless decisions the Fed is making on taxpayer’s behalf. What’s more, the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul stands to instill more uncertainty in financial markets while increasing the unaccountable powers of the Fed. Stay tuned for the release of our 2011 Cost of Government Day report (link to 2010 report) that details fully the financial perils posed by Dodd-Frank.
(Excerpt) Read more at fiscalaccountability.org ...
Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious
BTTT
Well Hell, if the federal reserve has money like that laying around to loan, let them pay off the national debt.
The loans to foreign banks were disclosed in their previous audits that are on the web. This isn’t news.
And those loans were paid back with interest.
Nawww, couldn’t be...
Geitner’s father and obama’s mother, America haters, were working with international bank - the proud progeniture is just using America’s money now to keep the family business going. These kids did good, indeed. Their parents should be proud. Their old dream to put down America is becoming a reality. Good boys. We are so proud of you.
The Federal Reserve IS the National Debt.
Ron Paul takes a lot of trashing here at FR, & you can think what you will of his stance on numerous issues, BUT, 99% of the issues we’re All infuriated by, 24/7, would Not even be issues if Congress were forced to be responsible for all those junk, Fed IOUs they feed on.
Congress is Constitutionally Required to be responsible for our money supply.
Get Rid of the Federal Reserve and 98% of DC will simply have to shut down and get Out of our lives.
Game, Set, Match.
I agree. The battle with the Fed is bigger. The Fed’s independence and power to obscure currency values, manipulate market prices, and fake demand for government debt makes it the largest culprit of our current economic problems.
So what bill doe Ron Paul introduce while our country is committing national suicide by spending?
How about a bill limiting government, or taxes, or spending?
No, RON PAUL AND BARNEY FRANK spend time introducing a bill to LEGALIZE DRUGS.
That, my friend, is why RON PAUL IS A NUTJOB.
If the economy is at a critical stage, why spend time on trying to get drugs legalized? Does the image or Nero fiddling while Rome burns fit?
If Ron Paul were president (God help us), would he be dealing with such issues and ignoring the REAL ISSUES? Why would the leopard change his spots?
Ron Paul = Mental Ward Patient.
So the Fed has gotten 16 Trillion back “with interest” already?
I believe so.
And they weren’t all loaned at the same time. There was probably never a time that 16 Trillion was outstanding.
Most of those loans were very short duration.
Plus only 65% of that 16 trillion went to foreign banks. The rest went to American banks. And it’s my understanding all was repaid with interest.
Where did you receive this understanding?
There have been several articles on it.
The following article has a summary of the 16 Trillion and who they went to. Notice the time frame though, it's all loans issued from the beginning of 2007 through July 2010. So the total of all loans issued over a 3.5 years was $16 trillion. Notice it's broken down by type. We'll deal with that next. 16 Trillion in emergency loans
The following article has spreadsheets with details on each loan. Open the first spreadsheet on the TAF (Term Auction Facility Loans). Notice that they are 1 month loans. By law they can't be more than 90 day loans. Notice also that they have security. And finally notice the interest rates. During the height of the crisis the interest rate drops to 0.25%. But a lot of these loans were made at interest rates > 4%.
Here is a more in-depth description of the TAF program
Okay, now open the PDFC (Primary Dealer Credit Facility) excel file from the second link. Notice that these too had security. These are 1 day loans, aka "overnight loans". They weren't all made at the same time. There is a technical note that all loans were repaid. That they were all repaid is confirmed in the following wiki article as well.
FED description of PDCF loans
Wiki - Primary Dealer Credit Facility
Those two categories alone cover almost 13 Trillion of the loans. It's not nearly as sinister as they make it sound when you realize $9 trillion of the loans was repaid the day after the loan was issued. And $4 trillion were repaid in a month.
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