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| And why do you suppose Michele Bachmann's Tea Party pandering meanderings "missed" it too? |
Go figure.
Here:
The Fed Audit
July 21, 2011
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."
[...] 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.
In another disturbing finding, the GAO said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given bailout funds. One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it might have created the appearance of a conflict of interest.
To Sanders, the conclusion is simple. "No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed's board of directors or be employed by the Fed," he said.
The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their emergency lending programs to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. The same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Altogether some two-thirds of the contracts that the Fed awarded to manage its emergency lending programs were no-bid contracts. Morgan Stanley was given the largest no-bid contract worth $108.4 million to help manage the Fed bailout of AIG.
A more detailed GAO investigation into potential conflicts of interest at the Fed is due on Oct. 18, but Sanders said one thing already is abundantly clear. "The Federal Reserve must be reformed to serve the needs of working families, not just CEOs on Wall Street."
[emphasis added] Read it for yourselves if you hesitate to take Sen. Sanders' word. This link.
And I thought City of Ramsey's socialized development in competition with the private sector and the conflict of interest in Colin McGlone's getting the City's trash hauling contract (per fairly new tidiness ordinances I believe he may have voted on) were news.
Small-town small-time, when stood next to the big city Wall Street wolfpack. We proud Americans have the best central bank money can buy.
That Oct. 18 updated-and-detailed audit hummer will likely be an eye-opener, but can we call it an "October surprise?"
I'd not be surprised about any level of shabbiness shown within the aims and deeds of the Fed.
Done By the "Bernanke Fed," yours courtesy of the Bush and Obama presidencies.
But like Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders - (indeed, even Michele Bachmann's signed onto "Audit the Fed") - I would like to see the Fed first painstakingly audited, and then based on abusiveness, reined in to restore reasonable central banking aimed at something beyond prolonging the family suffering going on now with the credit crunch neck-stomping for little guys, along with lubricious crony coziness for a passel of players at the big-money bandstands. [Sorry but I could not resist overzealous rhetoric. I promise to be better in future posts.]
____________UPDATE___________
An alternative presidential ticket made by melding both ends to challenge the middle, Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul, would have one obvious virtue - they cannot shoot the one because they'd get the other.