http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3The Fed Audit
The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how
the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. "As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world," said Sanders. "This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else."
Among the investigation's key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. "No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said.
The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse. In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans.
For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed's board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed's emergency lending programs.snip
GAO FULL REPORT
http://sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GAO%20Fed%20Investigation.pdf-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://urbansurvival.com/week.htmBernie's Bombshell
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If this hasn't raised your blood pressure high enough, how about clicking over to the official GAO report which suggest that "...opportunities exist to strengthen polices and processes to manage emergency assistance..."
A nice way of explaining we've been screwed again by the privately controlled not really Federal Reserve and it's about the most disgusting account of financial raping and pillage as you'll find.
Yet, Congress, on the corporate dole, especially with the growing "throw the bastards out" cries increasing around the country, is unlikely to do anything more than weasel and waffle. But, come to think of it, why am I not surprised? Gold star for Sanders for being forthright..bit he's got 99 colleagues left to work on....
Now to see how the financial universe REALLY works, couple in this next story...
TARP and the Great Circular Reference
We're all supposed to be happy as hell that banks are paying back their TARP money, right? All the hype and hoopla about what a grand and glorious thing this is just won't stop. Except according to this article here,
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/banks-pay-back-tarp-funds-borrowing-treasury-205658852.html the way theses banks have paid back the 'right pocket' is by borrowing from the left!
You got it: Take TARP money, they borrow more money from the Fed, then pay back TARP (cue the spin machine to rerun Happy Days) and while the public attention is distracted, they borrow from el Fed and pretend the situation is fixed. Ah, the foxes are still in the hen house just the same. But, I repeat myself too much. We need some financial Charmin to clean such bs happy talk up..
Depressions are like enemas for the rich and it may be getting on time for one to clean up the malinvestment, now being papered over with promissory notes which indenture our children and their children, too....
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My take is simple:
Number one, this IS NOT a complete top to bottom audit of the Fed. They are still sitting on at least another $50 trillion of toxic debts (accrued since the horrific dismantling of Glass-Steagall in 1999 and the odious Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000) that have been swapped out off-balance-sheet by the major global banks via T-bill and other instrument exchanges plus other off shore-schemes, dark pools, and secret parking funds.
Number two, you either kill off the Fed and the rest of the systemic banking controllers' grips on any meaningful power (the Fed just needs to be ended, plain and simple, and all collaborators and shills who argue against this be damned), or they literally, quite literally, are going to kill you, in a thousand different ways, with a million different cuts of the blade.