Tag Archives: federal reserve

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America, What Economic Recovery? The truth is finally told about how much the Federal Reserve spent to bail out the too big to fail banks; nearly $8 Trillion! Ron Paul is right!!!

“This is an issue that can unite the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.”-Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator from Ohio

Lies, scandals, cover ups, all part of the “too big to fail’s” plan to squeeze the United States dry.  Now there’s proof!

Bloomberg Markets magazine has gotten a hold of a 29,000(!) page document, that shows just how much the big banks lied and cheated to the tune of U.S.$7.77 trillion, and that’s not counting the taxpayer funded bailouts!

The bottom line is everybody close to the process lied like crazy.”-Naked Capitalism

Ever since 2007, when the Federal Reserve (a privately run bank) began bailing out the “too big to fail” banks, like Bank of America, the exact amount of the bail outs had been kept secret.  Ben Bernanke even said it was because if the public knew how much it really cost it would cause more problems.  He’s right!

While the average American in the United States lost their credit, lost their home, and lost their job, Corporate America got a $7.77 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve. That’s a record!  And that doesn’t even count the taxpayer funded bail outs!!!

By the way, average Americans in the United States are still losing their credit, their homes and their jobs, because of bailed out Corporate America!!!

Here’s some more interesting facts about the Federal Reserve bailouts:

1; On December 5, 2008, a record $1.2 trillion was issued on one day!!! 

2; The Federal Reserve actually set up the supposed bail out “loans” so that some members of Corporate America made a profit off of paying back those loans!  How would you like to be paid for paying back your loans?  Corporate America made an estimated $13 billion off some of the bail out loans!

3; Citigroup made the most money off of the Federal Reserve loans, to the tune of $1.8 billion!

4; In fact the top U.S. banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley) used the bail out loans to increase their power. By September 2011, their combined assets had increased to $9.5 trillion!!!

5; Most of these bail out loans were issued when the “too big to fail” banks (case in point Bank of  America and JP Morgan Chase & Company) were telling their stockholders that they were in no trouble at all!

6; Most of these bail out loans were issued at the same time that the government was giving away taxpayer dollars to save Corporate America!  Treasury Department boss Timothy Geithner was well aware of how much money the Federal Reserve was loaning to the “too big to fail’s”!

7; The U.S. Treasury Department’s taxpayer funded TARP program cost a record $700 billion, but that is now dwarfed by the newly revealed Federal Reserve bail outs.

8; The six biggest U.S. banks, got $160 billion of taxpayer TARP funds, and, as much as $460 billion from the Federal Reserve!

Bloomberg got the 29,000 page document after winning a lawsuit (amazingly) against the Federal Reserve, and the country’s biggest group of banks, know as the Clearing House Association.

What this proves is that Corporate America is one big ass FAIL!!!  Either they were in the financial hole and really did need the bail outs, which means they had already failed as Capitalist Captains of Industry, or, they were not in the hole, as they repeatedly told their stockholders, and they just pulled off the biggest scam in world history!!!

The result is that the Untied States is now toast: “…we’re absolutely, totally, 100% not prepared for another financial crisis.”-Ted Kaufman, former U.S. Senator from Delaware

Ron Paul is right!!!

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America! Federal Reserve Boss agrees with protestors. Wall Street is to blame!

“Well, I would say very generally I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what’s happening.  They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington.  And at some level, I can’t blame them.”–Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman

October 5, Ben Bernanke was answering questions from a U.S. Senate panel (yet again), when he was asked about the growing, and spreading, “Occupy” demonstrations.  Senators wanted to know if the protestors were justified in blaming Corporate America for the economic fall of the United States.

“Did Wall Street’s greed and recklessness cause this recession, that lead to so many people losing their jobs?” asked Senator Bernie Sanders.  Bernanke replied that excessive risk taking on Wall Street and the failure of financial regulators “had a lot to do” with the recession.


Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Out of desperation the European Central Bank will start using U.S. dollars

Starting with the October 12, and then the November 9 and December 7 loan tenders, the European Central Bank will make U.S. dollars available for three-month loans.

The Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank made similar announcements.  This is being done in coordination with the U.S. Federal Reserve (the privately run central bank for the United States).

The European banks will trade their money (Euros, Pounds, Yen and Swiss Francs) for U.S. dollars, for a fixed exchange rate.  This is an attempt to prevent money markets in Europe and Japan from locking up.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? World Banks tightening their grip on money

On Saturday, June 25, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announced that all major international banks, and central banks (like the U.S. Federal Reserve) are going to increase their capital reserves.

This means they are going to hold onto more money and issue less loans.  Some banks refer to capital reserves as putting their money to ‘rest’ (aka bank reserves, desired reserves).

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision refused to give a list of which banks will be holding back on their money.  This is an indication that the major international, and central banks do not expect any short term improvement in the world economies.

The increase in capital reserves is to help banks handle monetary emergencies, like traditional “runs on banks”.  Just how long does the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision think the economy will suck?  The new tighter control on money will be implemented in phases, becoming fully in effect in 2018.  Mmmm, it’s 2011 now, uh oh!

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Beige Book shows New York, Philly, Atlanta and Chicago Slow Down

The big bank known as Federal Reserve released its “Beige Book” of economic conditions (aka Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions).  Four districts of the United States show a slow down in economic activity.

Activity in the New York (district 2), Philadelphia (district 3), Atlanta (district 6) and Chicago (district 7) regions are slowing down.  The Federal Reserve blames the down turn on everything from the March 11 disasters in Japan, to a weak housing market, to increasing food and energy prices.

Their are 12 Federal Reserve districts in the United States.  The Beige Book will be presented at a Federal Reserve meeting on June 21.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Iran joins China in blaming U.S. Federal Reserve quantitative easing policy for bad economy

Iran is joining China in blaming the U.S. bank, Federal Reserve, for destroying the world economy.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says the “paper money” policy of the Federal Reserve is playing a part in the increase of poverty around the world, by forcing most international trades to use U.S. dollars.  He says the Federal Reserve injected into the world economies $32 trillion in “worthless” paper money.

President Ahmadinejad believes the Federal Reserve policy is part of a plan that forces poorer countries to pay the debts of the West.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Proof the Federal Reserve works for Corporate America, and Foreign Banks, not you

“Why wasn’t the Fed providing these same sweetheart deals to the American people? The Fed was practicing socialism for the rich, powerful and the connected, while the federal government was promoting rugged individualism to everyone else.”-Warren Gunnels, adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders

The Federal Reserve is a privately run bank.  It operates to make a profit.  It is not interested in helping out the average U.S. taxpayer, because there is no profit in it. It’s only natural that the biggest customers of the Federal Reserve are corporations, like financial institutions and banks, including foreign banks, and governments.

Under court order it was revealed that the Federal Reserve made at least 46 “emergency” loans to the Arab Banking Corporation, and the Libyan government is a 59% stake holder in that bank.

The Federal Reserve has also bailed out two major European banks, as well as many U.S. corporations.  The “Fed” makes its money off the interest it charges for those loans.  That includes the money it “loans” to the United States.  That’s right, our money, the not so almighty dollar, is borrowed from the Federal Reserve.

We little guys are ripped off, because the big low interest lows made to credit card companies, and banks, are used to provide high interest loans to us.  I remember a time when the low interest loans to corporate America were supposed to be passed on to the consumer, in the form of low interest loans.  That’s what former President Ronald Reagan claimed when he argued for a drop in interest rates from the “Fed”.

Since the late 1990s interest rates to corporate America have been going down, while interest rates to us little guys has been going up.  Also notice that interest rates on your savings accounts have been going down as well (and they wonder why American’s don’t save their money in the banks!?).

It’s not just individual consumers that are getting ripped off.  If you’re not a big corporation, just a small business, you’ve been ripped off as well.  There’ve been several regional businesses where I live, that have folded up, not because they didn’t have sales, but because their banks refused to extend credit, or canceled their credit altogether.

Basically the Federal Reserve is now only interested in being able to turn a big profit off their low interest loans.  It can’t do that with small time businesses or individuals.  That’s because they’re operating a WalMart type of business plan, that is making profit off high volume, not high prices.  The only way you can make big profits off high volume, low price, is to have customers that can afford to buy in high volume.

If the Federal Reserve is charging half a percent interest, it needs to make loans in the billions of dollars, in order to make a profit from that half a percent interest.  Logically only big corporations and governments, can take on that big of a loan.

So maybe the Federal Reserve is not “…practicing socialism for the rich, powerful and the connected…” as an adviser to Senator Sanders claims, but is simply acting as any other big corporation would in search of big profits.  After all, the “Fed” is the most powerful corporation in the United States (again it is NOT a government agency).  But this is just more reason why our money should not be controlled by the Federal Reserve.

By the way, know how much the “Fed” made in profits last year?  $81.7 billion.


 


Business/Economics, U.S.

Federal Reserve admits inflation is a problem, new jobs could make it worse

Despite years of denial, the Federal Reserve ( a privately run bank) is now saying inflation is a concern: “If we are going to have success in creating a long-run sustainable recovery with lots of job growth, we have to keep inflation under control.”-Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman

The problem is so bad that the Federal Reserve is worried that job growth could actually make things worse: “It is not clear that we can get substantial improvements in payrolls without some additional inflation risk.”

Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke had been saying for months that inflation isn’t that much of a problem.  Now Bernanke is saying that the best way to create jobs is to keep prices down.  In other words, fighting inflation is now the main focus, jobs will come later.  As part of the fight on inflation, the Federal Reserve has decided to keep the interest rates it charges financial institutions low/unchanged.

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

Why does the Federal Reserve feel optimistic about the Economy? They made a big Profit

The Federal Reserve Bank, a privately run bank established by Congress, feels better about the economic recovery. Why?  They made a $81.7 billion profit in 2010.

The Federal Reserve makes profit by charging interest on the money it loans to other banks and financial institutions.  It can also make money buying and selling U.S. bonds.

As we’ve seen over the past year, many big banks reported profits. Now the Fed is reporting big profits.  In other words the economy is good if you’re in banking.